Overview of Sort Tutorial

The sort command allows BR to create a sorted output file from a randomly ordered file of records, and to rearrange the records in a variety of ways. You can either create a second copy of the original but in sorted order, or you can just create an index (much like the index command itself).

How does it work?

The syntax for the SORT command is very simple:

SORT sort-control-file

Let's go ahead and create a sort control file, and then sort our ORDERS.INT data file. Sort files can be created within BR as an internal file, or run as a PROC file. Since text editor based PROC files are easier to work with, we will use this method. Open any text editor to begin, and write SORT on the first line. Save it as SAMPLESORT. Since we're using it as a PROC file, to run our sort, you will use this syntax from READY mode:

PROC SAMPLESORT

The sort control file itself, however, has far more parts to it. We'll build ours as we go along.

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