automatic indexes, v4.5 and descending sorts

[Bill Vermillion]

It was Thu, Sep 02 11:58  when Kenneth Brody said "Mia kusenveturilo estas
plena da angiloj. And continued:

> Jeremy Anderson wrote:

> > Is it possible to create an automatic index in v4.5 that sorts in
> > descending order?

> No.  You need 5.0 for that ability.

> > I ask because it does not show up as an option for the automatic indexes
> > (though it does show up for demand indexes), for any of the files I've
> > tried.  $PFOLDIX is not set.

> Demand indexes have always allowed descending.

And before the 5.0 ability I needed a descending order on dates
so I added a new field.

I took a date signifcantly far in the future to ensure that I would
always get the same number of digits up thru the 2038 date boundary
of Unix and subtracted today's date from that.  I then stored that
as the key.  Since the number got smaller each day an automatic
index on that new 5 digit field gave gave me a descending
field equivalent to a descending date edit.

I think I used December 12, 2099 as the date for the subtraction
target.

Bill

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com