[SOLVED] Sorting a table physically in Delphi

Sorting a table physically in Delphi

Delphi does not seem to like multi-field indexes.

How do I physically sort a a table so that I wind up with a table that has the rows in the desired order?

Example:

mytable.dbf

Field   Field-Name   Field-Type   Size
  0     Payer        Character     35
  1     Payee        Character     35
  2     PayDate      Date
  3     Amount       Currency

I need to produce a table sorted alphabetically by "Payee"+"Payer"

When I tried using an index of "Payee+Payer", I got an error:

"Field Index out of range"

Solution

If you're still using BDE you can use the BDE API to physically sort the DBF table:

uses
  DbiProcs, DbiTypes, DBIErrs;

procedure SortTable(Table: TTable; const FieldNums: array of Word; CaseInsensitive: Boolean = False; Descending: Boolean = False);
var
  DBHandle: hDBIDb;
  RecordCount: Integer;
  Order: SORTOrder;
begin
  if Length(FieldNums) = 0 then
    Exit;

  Table.Open;
  RecordCount := Table.RecordCount;
  if RecordCount = 0 then
    Exit;
  DBHandle := Table.DBHandle;
  Table.Close;

  if Descending then
    Order := sortDESCEND
  else
    Order := sortASCEND;

  Check(DbiSortTable(DBHandle, PAnsiChar(Table.TableName), nil, nil, nil, nil, nil,
    Length(FieldNums), @FieldNums[0], @CaseInsensitive, @Order, nil, False, nil, RecordCount));
end;

for example, in your case:

  SortTable(Table1, [2, 1]); // sort by Payee, Payer