Posted by Grant Foraker on November 14, 2006 at 09:09:01:
In Reply to: Re: Extended Keyed Files posted by Stephen Auerbach on November 14, 2006 at 07:51:06:
As discussed in Las Vegas, sub keys can be either single field or compound/concatentaed/contiguous fields.
Custom Master:
@(0);CNBR$;_
@(5)CNAME$;_
@(30);CSTATE$;_
@(32);CZIP$
You can define CSTATE$ as a sub key but the records will be returned in "random" order not sorted by CNBR$. Same for sub keys based on CNAME$ and CZIP$.
You can replicate the fields at the end of the record and create compound sub keys
@(100);CNAME$;CNBR$;_
@(130);CSTATE$;CNBR$;_
@(137);CZIP$;CNBR$;_
Option 2 is yucky!!!
If you need the records in some secondary or more elaborate order before display or print you could use the "Sort Gateway". Or, if the records are going to be displayed via a Windows List View or other control you could have Windows do the sorting.
Last, Jon made a suggestion, that's in bb's Las Vegas notes, about a "record set" option ala SQL that was meant to help resolves this.