Support : Dialog Search Aids : Successful Searching : SORT : In OneSearch

SORT (continued)

Using SORT in OneSearch®

All databases that have a PY and/or PD sortable field can be sorted in OneSearch. You can sort your final set just as you would a set derived from a single database (e.g., SORT S1/ALL/PY,D).

When sorting by fields other than PY or PD in OneSearch, you need to enter the word FROM followed by a single file number (e.g., SORT S1/ALL/SA,D FROM 561).

Multiple SORT Fields

You can specify more than one field code in a SORT command by listing the codes separated by either commas or slashes (/). Sorting precedence is performed from left to right, as listed.

SORT S1/ALL/AU,TI requests ALL items in set S1 to be sorted first by author (AU), then within author by title (TI) (see the first example that follows).

SORT S8/ALL/PY,D, JN requests ALL items in set S8 to be sorted first by publication year (PY) in descending order (D), with the most recent year first, and then by journal name (JN), in alphabetical order by default.

SORT S1/ALL/ZP,CO requests ALL items in set S1 to be sorted first by ZIP code (ZP), and then by company name (CO) within ZIP code area (see the second example that follows).

Tips and Cautions for Using SORT

The maximum number of items in a set to be sorted is 50,000.

For correct results, you need to sort ALL items in a set. For example, if you have retrieved a set of 300 companies within a particular industry and you want a list of only the top 50 (as defined by sales data), you must first SORT the entire batch of 300 in order to find the top 50 within the set. After a SORT has been performed on the set, you can request a TYPE, DISPLAY, or PRINT of the first 50 items from the sorted set.

Sorting is based on the first 49 characters in the field. If there are multiple elements in the field (e.g., multiple sales figures), the sort is on the first entry (e.g., the first sales figure listed).

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