SORT_WORDS Function

Returns a string that consists of the words that are sorted alphabetically.

Category: String
Returned data type: String
Note: Special characters such as ",.!" are not treated as separation characters.

Syntax

SORT_WORDS(source<,ascending,remove_duplicates>)

Required Argument

source

specifies a string to sort; this can be specified as string constant, field name, or expression

Note: If source is NULL, the function returns a NULL value.

Optional Arguments

ascending

specifies whether the text should be sorted in ascending order; this can be specified as Boolean constant, field name, or expression. The value must evaluate to either TRUE or FALSE:

  TRUE the input string is sorted in ascending order
  FALSE the input string is sorted in descending order
  Default TRUE

remove_duplicates

specifies whether duplicate characters should be removed; this can be specified as Boolean constant, field name, or expression. The value must evaluate to either TRUE or FALSE:

  TRUE duplicate characters are removed
  FALSE duplicate characters are not removed
  Default FALSE

Details

In determining the order, words with initial capital letters precede lowercase letters. Also, words with a concatenated special character are treated as a different word. For example, first and first! are two different words.

Examples

source_string =

     "It's a first! This is the first time I came in first place!"

ascending = true

remove_duplicates = true

result = sort_words(source_string, ascending, remove_duplicates)

// outputs "I It's This a came first first! in is place! the time"