Try

index on left(sponsor_id,4) + str(val(substr(sponsor_id,5,8))) + ;
             PADR(CHRTRAN(substr(sponsor_id,5,8), [0123456789], []), 4)...

>I need to index a field that contains values like:
>
>RTA-1
>RTA-2
>RTA-3
>RTA-3a
>RTA-10
>RTA-10a
>RTA-10b
>
>etc. How would you construct an index statement that would sort in the order shown?
>

>index on left(sponsor_id,4) + str(val(substr(sponsor_id,5,8))) to temp
>

>almost works but misses the alpha in the last position.
>
>
>Thanks