Sorting a string column as a number

[Stephen Rufle-2]

Is there a way to sort a list of GenericValue objects by number on a
column that is actually a string representation of a number?

Ex.
I have a party list where the externalId of the rows are
1,2,...,10,11,...,22.
When I query and order by externalId they come back as
1
10
11
2
22

I would like to be able to sort the externalId column as if it were a
number. I thought about after the query adding a column to each
GenericValue in the list, but do not think I can
gvObject.set("columnAsNumber", Integer.valueOf(stringValue)) if the
columnAsNumber does not already exist in the entity definition.

[hans_bakker]

only if they are entered with the same number of digits......

On Wed, 2010-04-07 at 06:11 -0700, Stephen Rufle wrote:

> Is there a way to sort a list of GenericValue objects by number on a
> column that is actually a string representation of a number?
>
> Ex.
> I have a party list where the externalId of the rows are
> 1,2,...,10,11,...,22.
> When I query and order by externalId they come back as
> 1
> 10
> 11
> 2
> 22
>
> I would like to be able to sort the externalId column as if it were a
> number. I thought about after the query adding a column to each
> GenericValue in the list, but do not think I can
> gvObject.set("columnAsNumber", Integer.valueOf(stringValue)) if the
> columnAsNumber does not already exist in the entity definition.

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[Bob Morley]

Stephen Rufle wrote

Is there a way to sort a list of GenericValue objects by number on a
column that is actually a string representation of a number?

The first thing that occurred to me was using a view-entity with a field for your sequence that is a complex alias.  Might have to hunt around, but there may be a function you can apply to the string that will result in a numeric or perhaps this comment from the dtd might shed some light ...

In every SELECT statement, the fields that are normally used are really defined to be expressions.
This means for example that you can supply an expression like (discountPercent * 100) in place of  just a field name.  The complex-alias tag is the Ofbiz way to do this.

[Stephen Rufle-2]

Is there a way to use a function like "toNumber" as part of the
alias/complex-alias structure? I looked in the schema and saw what looks
like only aggregate-functions are allowed.

Example of what I think I want

<alias entity-alias="A" name="externalIdAsNum" function="toNumber" >
*[Some way of saying I want externalId selected for use in the function ]*
  <complex-alias operator="-"> <- seems to require an operator which I
do not think I want
        <complex-alias-field  entity-alias="A" field="externalId"
default-value=""/>
  </complex-alias>
</alias>


Bob Morley wrote:

> Stephen Rufle wrote:
>  
>> Is there a way to sort a list of GenericValue objects by number on a
>> column that is actually a string representation of a number?
>>
>>    
>
> The first thing that occurred to me was using a view-entity with a field for
> your sequence that is a complex alias.  Might have to hunt around, but there
> may be a function you can apply to the string that will result in a numeric
> or perhaps this comment from the dtd might shed some light ...
>
> In every SELECT statement, the fields that are normally used are really
> defined to be expressions.
> This means for example that you can supply an expression like
> (discountPercent * 100) in place of  just a field name.  The complex-alias
> tag is the Ofbiz way to do this.
>  

--
Stephen P Rufle
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