I think this comes pretty close to the requirement. It breaks the lines
down into numeric/not numeric items, and then sorts from the least
significant (rightmost) to most significant items. For each sort, sorts
first by alpha, then numeric. That results in letters being sorted before
numbers, which seemed wrong for this application, so I added the
returnOnlyNumbers function that (nearly) guarantees letters sorting after
numbers.
If the parenthesis etc. gets in the way, then removing them from the sort
could be done by building an array mapping the original list to the sort
keys, and then sorting on a function that returns the appropriate sort key.
But for now this seems pretty close.
function sortByAlternateNumericItems lineList,D
-- takes a line list and a delimiter D that must not be in the lineList
-- breaks each line down into numeric/non-numeric items
-- then sorts by the items, from least significant (rightmost) to most
significant.
-- for each sort, sorts first by alpha, then numeric, so numbers sort
before letters
if D is in lineList then
answer warning D && "is in the list" with cancel
exit to top
end if
put 0 into maxItems
repeat for each line L in lineList
put numericItems(L,D) into newL
get the number of items of newL
if it > maxItems then put it into maxItems
put newL & cr after R
end repeat
delete char -1 of R
set the itemDel to D
repeat with i = maxItems down to 1
sort lines of R by item i of each
sort lines of R numeric by returnOnlyNumbers(item i of each)
end repeat
replace D with empty in R
return R
end sortByAlternateNumericItems
function returnOnlyNumbers N
if N is a number then return N else return 999999999999999
end returnOnlyNumbers
function numericItems S,D
-- returns the string S broken into number/not-number items, delimited
by D
-- D must be chosen so that it does not occur in S
if D is in S then
answer warning D && "is in" && S with cancel
exit to top
end if
put char 1 of S is a number into isNum
put 1 into B
repeat with E = 2 to length(S)
if isNum then
if (char B to E of S is a number) then next repeat
put (char B to E - 1 of S) & D after R
put E into B
put false into isNum
else if char B to E of S is a number then put true into isNum
else
repeat with NB = B + 1 to E
if char NB to E of S is not a number then next repeat
put (char B to NB - 1 of S) & D after R
put NB into B
put true into isNum
exit repeat
end repeat
end if
end repeat
return R & char B to E of S
end numericItems
This sorts this list:
187
187.01
187.02
187.1
187.22
187.234
187.3
187.33
187.456
10187
18700
187 (a)
187 (b)
187 (b)(1)
187 (a)(1)
187.1.1
187.1.2
187.c
187a
187c
187 a
187 1
1
a
c
b
to this:
1
187
187a
187c
187 1
187 (a)
187 (a)(1)
187 (b)
187 (b)(1)
187 a
187.c
187.01
187.02
187.1.1
187.1.2
187.1
187.22
187.234
187.3
187.33
187.456
10187
18700
a
b
c
On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 9:08 AM Bob Sneidar via use-livecode <
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> I should have said, in the loop keep adding a character until the value is
> no longer a number, then sort numeric by the last value.
>
> Bob S
>
>
> > On Oct 23, 2018, at 14:14 , Bob Sneidar via use-livecode <
> use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> >
> > This of course cannot be a numeric sort. I would create a loop and start
> with 1 digit, then see if the value div the value = the value (in a try
> catch loop). Once you get an error or false, break out the integer portion,
> pad it with the appropriate number of trailing zeros, then append the rest.
>
>
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