ACC: How to Sort Records in Case-Sensitive ( ASCII) Order
ID: Q130333
|
The information in this article applies to:
-
Microsoft Access versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 7.0, 97
SUMMARY
Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.
This article shows you how to create a sample user-defined function to sort
records in case-sensitive (or ASCII) order.
This article assumes that you are familiar with Visual Basic for
Applications and with creating Microsoft Access applications using the
programming tools provided with Microsoft Access. For more information
about Visual Basic for Applications, please refer to your version of the
"Building Applications with Microsoft Access" manual.
NOTE: Visual Basic for Applications is called Access Basic in Microsoft
Access versions 1.x and 2.0. For more information about Access Basic,
please refer to the "Introduction to Programming" manual in Microsoft
Access version 1.x or the "Building Applications" manual in Microsoft
Access version 2.0.
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft Access sorts records in ascending or descending order without
regard to case. However, you can use a user-defined function in a query
to sort text data by its ASCII character values. This results in a
case-sensitive order.
The following table demonstrates how the ascending order in Microsoft
Access differs from a case-sensitive order:
Ascending Case-Sensitive
Order Order
--------------------------
a A
A B
B C
b D
c a
C b
D c
d d
To sort records in case-sensitive order, follow these steps:
- Open an existing Microsoft Access database.
- Create a new table with the following structure:
Table: Sorting Test
-------------------
Field Name: Test
Data Type: Text
- View the Sorting Test table in Datasheet view, type the following
eight records in the Test field, and then close the table:
b
d
B
A
D
a
C
c
- Create a module and type the following line in the Declarations
section if it is not already there:
Option Explicit
- Type the following procedure:
Function StrToHex (S As Variant) As Variant
'
' Converts a string to a series of hexadecimal digits.
' For example, StrToHex(Chr(9) & "A~") returns 09417E.
'
Dim Temp As String, I As Integer
If VarType(S) <> 8 Then
StrToHex = S
Else
Temp = ""
For I = 1 To Len(S)
Temp = Temp & Format(Hex(Asc(Mid(S, I, 1))), "00")
Next I
StrToHex = Temp
End If
End Function
- Create the following query based on the Sorting Test table:
Query: CaseSensitive Sorting Test
---------------------------------
Type: Select
Field: Test
Sort: not sorted
Show: True
Field: Expr1: StrToHex([Test])
Sort: Ascending
Show: False
- Run the query. Note that the records are sorted in case-sensitive
order. The uppercase characters (A-D) appear before the lowercase
characters (a-d).
REFERENCES
For more information about the Hex() function search the Help Index for
"Hex function," or ask the Microsoft Access 97 Office Assistant.
Additional query words:
Keywords : kbusage
Version : WINDOWS:1.0,1.1,2.0,7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto