HP 3000 Manuals

SORT-MERGE/XL General Users Guide

Sorting Numerically 

The last column of data in the file EMPLOYEE lists employee numbers.
These were assigned chronologically to each new employee.  To obtain a
list of all employees in the order of their hiring you would proceed as
shown in the following example:

          :SORT  

          HP32214A.01.00  SORT/3000 WED, JUN  3, 1987,  8:35 AM
          (c) HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. 1986

          >INPUT EMPLOYEE  
          >OUTPUT COMPANY  
          >KEY 42, 4  
          >END   
          PURGE OLDOUTPUT FILE COMPANY.GROUP.ACCOUNT ? Y  

             <<The SORT Statistics Appear Here>>

          :EDITOR  

          HP32201A.07.17 EDIT/3000 WED, JUN  3, 1987,  8:40 AM
          (c) HEWLETT-PACKARD CO. 1985
          /TEXT COMPANY  
           FILE UNNUMBERED
          /LIST ALL   
                          1         2         3         4
                 123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345

            1    ANDERSON   CHARLES    PRESIDENT          0247
            2    LANGE      ROBERT     ENGINEER           3235
            3    ANDERSON   CHARLES    SALES REP          3456
            4    CARLSON    ROBERTA    TREASURER          3586
            5    ZIMMER     ANDREW     ENGINEER           5739
            6    ANDERSON   MARY       ACCOUNTANT         6345
            7    SMITH      HOWARD     DESIGNER           6794
            8    TAYLOR     HEATHER    SECRETARY          7272
            9    FISHER     TOM        SHIPPING CLERK     7309
           10    JOHNSON    FRANCES    RECEPTIONIST       7943

To determine the newest employee, and obtain a list in descending order
to the one with the most seniority, use the DESC (for descending)
parameter of the >KEY command:

          >KEY 42, 4, DESC   

The file COMPANY would now list Receptionist, FRANCES JOHNSON as the
first record in the file and President, CHARLES ANDERSON, as the last
record in the file.

MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation