<< Am I to understand that everyone else is content to leave their tables unsorted? If so, I reluctantly bow to the majority, while I continue to search for a way to defy it. >> Sorting a table physically is NO GUARANTEE that R:Base will return the records in a sorted fashion when you issue a SELECT against a table without an ORDER BY clause.
While R:Base _often_ does so there are certain cases in which it will not -- for instance, when the columns required to construct the result set are found in a single index on the table. In this case, the data will come back in _index_ order, not natural order. Furthermore, while R:Base _often_ returns data in natural order AT THE MOMENT there's no guarantee that it will do so in the next incremental release. If you rely on this unsupported behavior you're setting yourself up for a MAJOR problem when something changes. If you absolutely MUST have your data in sorted order, rename your tables with _RAW at the end (using the NOCHECK option) and then create a view with the original table name and an ORDER BY clause. This will give you the effect of a permanently maintained (no PROJECT needed) sorted table. -- Larry
