We also use the construct that Steve describes below. Not very efficient on
large datasets, but does work without problems*. So "It would help a lot if
you post the line(s) of code that you're using", as a FIND(SERIAL) with a
SORT is the easiest way to do it. You could also consider using a Third
Party Indexing product (we use Superdex) which (amongst other things) will
enable a FIND(CHAIN) on a master set producing sorted results.

* However, I swear there was once a program that when it performed a
FIND(SERIAL) on a master set would not process all the entries. At the time
I concluded that this could in theory happen, as a  serial read on a master
is actually simulated by the hashing algorithm, instead of simply reading
entries in chronological order. Comments anyone ?


Costas Anastassiades,
Information Systems and Internal Communications Dept
INTRACOM SA
Athens-Greece


----------
From:   Steve Dirickson b894 WestWin[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Πέμπτη, 30 Ιανουαρίου 1997 6:06 μμ
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: HP Transact Question

<<I am using Transact and VPLUS to maintain an on-line application.  A
client has requested that I build a screen to list entries from a Manual
Master - in sorted order. The only manuals I can find (Oct 87) state that
SORT is only allowed on the FIND verb. So, I have used the FIND(SERIAL)
with the SORT and PERFORM statements - the results displayed on the
screen are the list of entries, and they are not sorted. Are there any
Transact programmers left out there who might have a suggestion? (Other
than making the master a detail - tried that one, but the client said
no)>>

It would help a lot if you post the line(s) of code that you're using.

Assuming that you're doing something like
 find(serial)
masterset,list=(item1,item2,item3),sort=(item2),perform=use-the-data;

and that the code at the 'perform' target just puts the data onto the
screen in the order it receives it, I can't think of anything that would
cause the data to not be sorted properly; we use exactly this construct
in a couple of places, and it works fine.

Steve