
     Sorting & Searching

  Sorting

DataBox has a sorting facility allowing you to sort your database according to its data content.

Every record has to have an associated Category. This is the primary sorting field. When you click the 'Sort' button on the DataBox main form, all records in your database will be ordered according to Category.

Within Category, you have the option of nominating up to 3 fields that can be used to further sort your data. For example, within a single Category you may wish to sort in field numbers 1,9 and then 7 in that order of precedence.

In order to achieve this, you simply enter "1" in the Sort Box alongside the data entry area of field 1, "2" in the Sort Box alongside the data entry area of field 9 and "3" in the Sort Box alongside the data entry area of field 7.

If only 1 additional sort field is required, you need only enter 1 against the field. No more than 3 fields can be specified to improve the ordering of your data.

Due to the complexities of sorting strings of data, it is sometimes difficult to order by a numerical field when the field contains commas or currency signs.

e.g. Sorting a field such as "$ 9,876.00" can have spurious results due to the inclusion of non-numeric characters. To overcome this, DataBox will check any sort field to see if it contains mainly numerical characters, plus the currency signs "£" and "$" and special characters space, "." and ",". If it can be determined to be a numerical field, sorting will be made on just the value of the field.

Published records are published by Category, in your requested sort order.

Searching

To search for a record that matches a specific 'pattern', double-click on the field where a search is required. A search window will pop-up where you may enter a pattern match. This will search to locate the next record (from the current record position) where the field you are searching on contains the characters entered in the search window. The search is not for an exact match, but a partial one. Therefore searching a field for "abc" would return records where the search field contained "xxabc", "abcdefg" and "As easy as abc".

Currently, no search features are provided in the Web pages of your Published database.

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For further help, please view the appropriate sections.
If there are any areas not covered sufficiently, or you have comments, please e-mail to documentation@simplewebfx.com.

