[h=4]Sorting Records
When you
sort records, you are putting them into a
logical order, with
like data grouped together. As a
result, sorted data is often simpler to read and understand than unsorted data. By default, Access sorts records
by their
ID numbers. However, there are many other ways records can be sorted. For example, the information
in a database belonging to a bakery could be sorted in a number of ways:
- Orders could be sorted by order date or by the last name of the customers who placed the orders.
- Customers could be sorted by name or by the city or zip code where they live.
- Products could be sorted by name, category (e.g., pies, cakes, cupcakes, etc.), or price.
You can sort both
text and
numbers in two ways: in
ascending order or
descending order. "Ascending" means "going up," so an
ascending sort will arrange numbers from
smallest to largest and text from
A to Z. "Descending" means "going down," or
largest to smallest for numbers and
Z to A for text. The default ID number sort that appears in your tables is an
ascending sort, which is why the lowest ID numbers appear first.
In our example, we will be performing a sort on a table. However, you can sort records in any Access object. The procedure is largely the same.