Attn: Marshall Barton
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:11:10 -0500, Marshall Barton
wrote:
Chuck wrote:
On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:38:23 -0500, Marshall Barton
wrote:
Chuck wrote:
Due to the nature of the part numbers we are working with, parsing them left,
center, right did not make any difference in the sort order. Your milage may
vary for part numbers with different formats.
I came very close a month ago, but there are some part
numbers did not fit the simple parsing rules I used. As I
see the problem, the trick is to identify which characters
are in the left, middle and right portions given the
apparently ambiguous mix of alphas, digits, the dot/dash and
the fact that each portion can vary from 0 to 6 characters.
There's even one example where the middle portion is not all
digits. It's enough to give me a headache, but intriguing
in a twisted sort of way.
You can: find first number, find first character, find first number after first
character, find first character after first number after first character, ...
Sort left, left mid, mid, right mid, right.
I think we are gilding the lily.
I'm leaning in that direction, but I believe the problem is
more complex than that because the left mid might really be
the right mid if some other portions are missing.
I don't think this weed is anything like a lily and gilding
it might be more like trying to make a silk purse out of a
sow's ear ;-)
Amen.
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