MCL Reference > List Functions

The function sorts an item string in ascending order and returns a specific item. If the items of the item string contain sub-items, you may specify a sub-item as the sorting key. The function can return an item, a sub-item, or the ordinal of an item.

Syntax

ListAscItem(cValueExpr,nItemNumber,cSeparator,nSortSubItem,cSubItemSeparator,cReturnType)

ListAscItem(cValueExpr,nItemNumber,cSeparator,cSortExpr,cSubItemSeparator,cReturnType)

Argument	Description	Example
cValuleExpr	The item string or an expression returning an item string	'12:45/6:00/9:40'
nItemNumber	An ordinal number specifying which item, after sorting, to be returned	3
cSeparator	Item separator, can be more than 1 character (default to ',')	'/'
nSortSubItem	An ordinal number specifying which sub-item to be sorted. If omitted, the whole item will be sorted	2
cSortExpr	Use the value returned by ListCol( ) and ListColVal( ) to determine the order. Please see the examples below for details	'ListColVal(1)+ListColVal(2)
cSubItemSeparator	Sub-item separator, can be more than 1 character (default to '-')	':'
cReturnType	'I': Returns the ordinal number, before sorting, of the item. 'R': Returns the whole item Omitted or any other character: returns the sub-item	'I'

Returns

Character

Example

ListAscItem('Orange,Apple,Grape,Pear',2)

Returns 'Grape'. After sorting, the item string becomes: 'Apple,Grape,Orange,Pear'，The 2nd item is 'Grape'.

ListAscItem('12:45/6:00/9:40',3,'/',2,':','I')

Returns 1. The 2nd sub-items of the item string are '45', '00', and '40' respectively. After sorting on the 2nd sub-items, the item string becomes '6:00/9:40/12:45', the 3rd item is '12:45', the ordinal number of this item before sorting is 1 (cReturnType='I').

ListAscItem('5-4,23-15,3-26',1,,2)

Returns '15'. The 2nd sub-items of the item string are '4', '15' and '26' respectively. (Please note that when comparing strings, '4' is greater than '15' since '4' > '1'. When comparing numbers, 4 is smaller 15) Therefore, after sorting, the item string becomes '23-15,5-4,3-26' and the function returns the sub-item '15' of the first item (sub-item is returned if argument cReturnType is omitted).

ListAscItem('5-4,23-15,3-26',1,,2,,'R')

Returns '23-15'. This example is similar to the example above. The only difference is the whole item is returned (cReturnType='R') instead of the index index.

In the example view in the figure below, the column "WeightFp" returns an item string of both the weight and the finishing position of 8 past starts of each horse by scanning the history only once. Columns "Lightest" and "Best" utilize the ListAscItem( ) function to sort the list by weight and finishing position respectively and returns the minimum values of the data. Instead of doing it this way, you may apply the functions HrMinimum('HrWeight( )',8) and HrMinimum('HrFP( )',8) to get the same results. However, each of these functions scans the history once. Thus the history will be scanned twice. The speed is slower than that of the view in this example.

Column	Formula	Data Type
Horse	(Built-in column)
WeightFp	HrHistoryList("Str(HrWeight( ),3)+'-'+Str(HrFP( ),2)",8)	Text (56)
Lightest	ListAscItem(Column(' WeightFp '),1,,1)	Text (3)
Best	ListAscItem(Column(' WeightFp '),1,,2)	Text (2)

ListAscItem('5-4,6-1,2-6',1,,'ListColVal(1)+ListColVal(2)')

Returns '6-1'. The argument 'ListColVal(1)+ListColVal(2)' asks the system to sort on the numeric sum of the 1st and 2nd sub-items:

Item	ListColVal(1)+ListColVal(2)
'5-4'	5 + 4 = 9
'6-1'	6 + 1 = 7
'2-6'	2 + 6 = 8

Since 7<8<9, after sorting the item string becomes '6-1,2-6,5-4'. The function returns the first item '6-1'.

ListAscItem('5-4,6-12,2-6',1,,'ListCol(1)+ListCol(2)')

Returns '6-1'. The argument 'ListCol(1)+ListCol(2)' ask the system to sort on the concatenation of the 1st and the 2nd sub-items:

Item	ListCol(2)+ListCol(1)
'5-4'	'4' + '5' = '44'
'6-12'	'12' + '6' = '126'
'2-6'	'6' + '2' = '62'

Since '126'<'44'<'62' (note: '126'<'44' because '1'<'4'), the item string after sorting becomes '6-12,5-4,2-6'. The function returns the first item '6-12'.