Over the years I have been copy and pasting Comments into BD from an older DB program and some of thecomments are large.  When I sort the my sightings data (View & Edit Sightings Window, sorting on the Comments field), and the sightings contain some records with large Comments fields, those sightings/records are sorted but not in correct order.  This has been happening for a number of years and on quite a few large comment fields.  I have copied the large comments into a new sighting record and sorted, and the new record does not sort correctly.  I have copied just the top few lines into a new record, and that new, smaller record sorts fine.  The reason I am sorting is because I have been manually adding at the beginning of my Comments field, my world, and ABA, sequence numbers, and I like to sort on this field.  For example, my Comments field might start with - "W 0704/ABA 612. ".  I copied and pasted my Comments from one record into Word and ran Word Count. of "1 page, 369 words, 1543 characters (no spaces), 1952 character (with spaces), 1 paragraph and 26 lines".  I don't think data content if the problem, but something about the size.  I have also manually reentered the first line thinking a non-displayable character may be imbedded.  And I have removed extra line feed/carriage returns.  It didn't help.  I can live with this situation but thought maybe I was doing something wrong or there is an easy solution.  I am using the latest version of BD and taxonomies.  Thanks, Joe. 

Hi Joe,

There should be nothing tricky about this. And it doesn't appear that you are doing anything wrong. BD simply uses the standard database sorting available using Microsoft Access technology.

I would like to see and test this myself. If you want, please Backup your database, then ZIP the backup and upload it to me using the Support => File Upload page on this site.

Then, give me simple instructions for reproducing just one anomoly. I will be able to tell you then what is going on.

Ok?

Jeff

Jeff, I just uploaded my database.  Look at the record for Gray Vireo (5-19-88), which does not  sort properly.  Better yet, View all ABA records for 1988 and then sort on the Comments field.  You will get a cluster of records (beginning with "W nnnn") that sorted properly and a cluster of "W nnnn" records that didn't (including Gray Vireo).  Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe,

I have your database. Thanks!

When you say view all ABA records for 1988 and then sort on Comments field, I need to know all of your settings for doing this in the View/Edit Setup window. You can either provide a screen shot for me of just tell me ALL of your settings on this page.

Thanks,

Jeff

Or Joe - if you are talking about the sorting is wrong in the Report - please provide me with a screenshot of the Report Designer window showing all the settings you are using.

Thanks

Jeff

Hi Joe,

I just noticed that you DID say that you used the View/Edit window and sorted on Comments. So, you must be clicking on the Comments column header to sort on Comments after the View/Edit window is displayed. Is that what you are doing?

Jeff

Hi Joe,

I think I have let this one slip through the cracks. I pulled up the emails we exchanged as well as reviewed this post and then the database you sent me. The records do not sort correctly within BD based on the comments field nor do they sort correctly within the database when viewed from within MSAccess (Microsoft's database tool that drives all of this). So, there is something in the data that even makes MSAccess think it is sorting correctly while it does not look correct to us.

And I cannot figure out why. All I know is that you copied this data into the comments field from an old IBM program and that if I create the sightings record anew, by hand, within BD it does indeed sort correctly. So I can only assume that these records as copied from the old IBM program got some vestige of weird data copied with them and I have no idea how to figure it out for you or clean it up. My only suggestion is that you re-enter the sighting and enter the comments by hand.

Let me know if what I found above doesn't match your findings - in that, always re-entering the sighting by hand will end up with it sorting as you would expect in BD.

Jeff

Hi Steve,

I agree. But, I am not able to confirm that there are non-printable chars in the field and if there are, then they are not getting transferred with a copy/paste operation - or they would show up.

Thanks,

Jeff

Hi Joe/Steve:

The BD export should do the same trick; although it is not exactly the same as what SteveO mentions.

Export just a couple of the record(s) in question using the BD Sightings Export feature and examine the output in a hex editor.

I like your test also Joe. Try both please.

Let us know,

Jeff