The Report Sort Order dialog is the second of three potential steps when creating or modifying a report. In some applications, this dialog may not be present.

 

 

 

Default Sort Order

This option uses the default sort order specified by the developer of this application. When this option has been selected group heading and footing options will not be available.

 

Predefined Sort Order

This option will provide a list of sort orders that have been pre-defined by the developer of this application. This option is the most desirable of the three because it allows group heading and footing options. Pre-defined sort orders are usually faster than custom sort orders defined with the next option.

 

Custom Sort Order

This option allows you to display the report in any desired order. When enabled, this option will allow you to invoke the Report Wizard's ad-hoc sort designer. The sort designer will allow you to create up to three sort levels. Each level may be ascending or descending and the entire sort may be case sensitive or insensitive.

 

NOTE: When using Custom Sort Orders this application will normally attempt to optimize the performance of the user defined sort. However, the sort processing can potentially be time consuming when large amounts of data need to be sorted for your report.