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I certainly do not want to defend
Windows! >Peter Pinski
[peter.pinski-forum=-=web.de] Hello, > >excuse me, if
I am wrong. but I have tried the sort function and it seemed that it sorts in
an >ALPHANUMERICAL order and not in a numerical, i.e. 889<991 but
1021<991 !!! because 1<9. Peter is correct, the DOS sort does use alphanumerical
order, which is kind of stupid, but not a serious problem provided that the
data is in the appropriate format. INPUT FILE: test.txt first
123.456 second
987.654 third
1234.56 fourth
9.87654 sort test.txt /+11 /O
testsort.txt OUTPUT FILE: testsort.txt fourth
9.87654 first
123.456 second
987.654 third
1234.56 In other words, the data has to be decimal aligned
and you need to tell the sort where the beginning of the numeric field is.
This
however, will encounter some problems with scientific notation unless it is
expressed carefully. So, in conclusion, perhaps there are drawbacks to the
Windows solution and it may indeed be worthwhile downloading, installing and
learning a new command environment – but let’s not forget that
simple is usually better than complex for the end
user. Dr. Philip G. Hultin Associate Professor of
Chemistry, R3T 2N2 http://umanitoba.ca/chemistry/people/hultin |