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Doug, In addition to/instead of using an alternate collating sequence, you might consider implementing a SOUNDEX algorithm. Midrange Computing published an RPG version of this in September of 1995. You should be able to locate it by searching on SOUNDEX on their website (www.midrangecomputing.com). David Morris >>> "Doug Holmes" <doug@netserv.ouac.on.ca> 05/27/99 01:42PM >>> Hi, We stores people's names in our database in mixed upper-/lower- case, and mixed english/french characters. We've gradually been experiencing little problems now with name searches, alphabetically sorted lists, etc., since the characters get sorted {a,b, ..., z, A, B, ..., Z} and english letters like "e" and "a" not being equal to "e`" and "a`" (i.e. letter with french accent above). So, names like "de Silva" do not sort with the rest of the "D's", "von ..." do not sort with the rest of the "V's", etc. We've tossed around a couple of solutions like: 1) storing another version of the name fields in strict upper-case/english only, and using that for searching, then displaying the other version to users 2) building temporary files containing the same as in 1) as needed 3) translating the data in the input records and search arguments on the fly as they're read from the file (which may mean reading the complete file in some applications, or at least more reads than just doing a basic "<search argument> SETLL <file> and <search argument> READE <file>" (we're RPG users <grin>). Does anyone have any other tricks or solutions that you'd be willing to share? Thanks in advance, Doug -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug Holmes Senior Programmer Ontario Universities' Application Centre P.O. Box 1328, 650 Woodlawn Road West Guelph ON, CANADA N1H 7P4 TELEPHONE: (519)823-1940, x 224 FAX: (519)823-5232 www.ouac.on.ca +--- | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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