>>>I have an application that needs a compound index built. The fields are all string fields, but the user would like the second field to be in descending order. Is there a good way to do this in VFP?
>>>
>>>TIA
>>
>>If it's only a matter of displaying them, e.g. in a grid or a browse, and if this can be done with the help of a PRG, then I propose a SELECT-SQL statement, like...
>>

select * from sometable order by 1, 2 desc, 3, 4 into cursor c_temp
>>browse

>
>I wish that was the case, as I thought of that one. But I need it to be part of an index. Thanks anyway.

Okay, another approach that also uses Sergey's chrtran(). Create an extra field that will gonna contain an alternative string. Suppose the field that needs to be shown in descending order is named F2, then the extra field might be named F2A. Ensure that F2A is always updated whenever F2 is updated.

REPLACE F2A WITH CHRTRAN(F2, ;
	"0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", ;
	"zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba`_^]\[ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA@?>=<;:9876543210")

The index can then be something like

INDEX ON F1+F2A+F3 TAG whatever
BROWSE

The advantage is that the indexing is simple and speedy.