It is often useful to see data in a specific order, either to get a quick answer on the screen or for reporting purposes. R:BASE provides an easy way to sort rows using a single column or multiple columns. You can specify whether to sort in ascending or descending order.
We will use the Flights table. Before sorting data, close the Data Browser for the Customer table.
To close the "Data Editor... [Customer]" window:
Make sure the "Data Editor...[Customer]" window is active. Right click this caption bar for the window and click Close or use the "X" on the Data Editor window.
We'll open the "Data Browser" window for the Flights table.
To open the Flights table:
| 1. | In the "Database Explorer" window, highlight the "Flights" table. |
| 2. | Select "Open Table". |
The data from the Flights table is displayed in a "Data Browser" window.
Now that we've displayed the data from the Flights table, suppose you would like to see the flight information sorted in alphabetical order by the slogan. To sort the data by slogan:
| 1. | In the "Data Browser" window, click on any data for the slogan column for focus. |
| 2. | Click on the column header name "Slogan". |
| 3. | The column header background will turn green for "Ascending" order, unless the Data Browser column titles are displaying a gradient. |
| 4. | Click on the column header name "Slogan" again. |
| 5. | The column header background will turn yellow for "Descending" order, unless the Data Browser column titles are displaying a gradient. |
To remove the column title gradient in order to see the green/yellow colors when sorting columns in ascending and descending order, select "Settings: Data Browser" from the main menu bar. There is a check box you can remove.
