Zugg Software :: View topic - How to sort a database variable by value if some of the values are the same?

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Is there currently a way to sort a database variable by (numerical) value? I found this thread where it was suggested that you generate another database based on the original database, only with the keys and values reversed. That would almost work for me, except that sometimes the values in my original database are duplicates. So, for example, a key in my original database might have a value equal to 10, and so might a different key, and another, etc. If I had two or more keys with the same value, when those keys become values in the mirror database variable, there would be only a single key and value instead of more, and the key would only be equal to whatever last overwrote it.

To put it another way, let's say my database variable says this:
Blahblah 10
LOLWUT 15
Norly 10
Intertubes 10
Something 12

The mirror database would end up saying this:
10 Intertubes
12 Something
15 LOLWUT

And it would lose the crucial keys Blahblah and Norly. :-/

Is there any way I can sort a database variable by numerical value without having to create a mirror database?

Wizard Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 1201

What is it that you are trying do here anyway? I think perhaps you are trying to do something complicated that doesn't need to be complicated.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

I figured out a way to do it without having to sort the database, but it was extra steps and would have been much easier if I could just sort the database variable by value.

In the game I play (DragonRealms) you have to get ranks in certain skills to level. The skills are divided into skill sets. Some level requirements are simple: x ranks in a specific skill. Others are not so simple: x overall ranks in a certain skillset, or X number of skills in a skillset must be at least Y rank or higher, etc.

It's the second thing that made me want to sort a database variable. There are nine skills in the lore skillset I can learn, and each level it doesn't matter which skills they are, but I need to have three of them to be at least Y rank. I have an alias I run that reads in my current skills and ranks and tells me what I need to level. For most requirements that's enough to do some simple math.

For the lore skills, though, it's not, since I have to determine which skills are my top three. I have to put them in a database variable with the key as the skill and the value as my ranks in it. I wanted to sort them descending so I could just have it look at the top three things in the variable database, calculate them against what I need to level, and tell me. I can't do the mirror database thing though because I might have the same number of ranks in two or more skills, which would make the script useless; if I had the same ranks in two or all three of my top three skills, it would actually ignore two or three of my top three skills and urge me to waste time on skills I do not need to level.

So anyway, to get around it I just had it generate a stringlist variable that's equal to the values of everything in the database. Then it sorts the stringlist descending. Then it does a LOOPDB where it checks what skill has the same ranks as the first number in the string (the highest number). Once it finds it, it assigns that skill as my top lore skill and breaks from the loop. Then it does the same thing for the second number in the string, and as long as it's not the previously mentioned skill, it assigns it to my second lore skill. Then it does the same thing for the third number in the string, as long as it's not the first and second skill, and assigns it as my third lore skill. This way, it doesn't matter if I have the same ranks in two or more skills or not; it just checks for another skill of that same value that isn't the one(s) it already found.

It ends up being like, five lines of code instead of two, but it works perfectly so I'll take it. It would be simpler to just be able to sort a database variable by value, though. I couldn't figure out a command for it, if it exists.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Ah. Hit a snag with my work-around... sorting the stringlist does things like this:

49|42|4|37|26|15|0|0|0

As you can see, it makes my script think my third-highest skill has 4 ranks, rather than 37. I tried manually to make that 4 a "04" but it just deletes the leading zero, so that's not an option either.

So as of right now, there's no way to sort it like I want, right? If anyone has any idea for another way I could do this, it would be appreciated; I can't mirror database or do this, so I'm hard-pressed to think up a third way. If it comes to me, I'll post it here though.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Have a glance at
http://forums.zuggsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19800
The answer there looks like what you're after

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Hrm, that looks like a very old topic. I guess I will right a solution off of the top of my head.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Hmm, neither of those work for me... the value sorting alias from that thread ends up returning seven skills instead of nine. It looks like it's just doing a mirror database, and like I said, I have more than one skill with the same values so that will not work... in this case, it only registered one of the skills with zero ranks. Then the #SHOW %sort there gives me this odd result:

wind=0|vocals=50|teaching=29|string=0|scholarship=43|percussion=0|mech=38|appraisal=15|4 --- animal

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:15 am

Nattie, I actually had that issue myself in the past. I got the solution. :P Take a look at these two topics:

This one here (my original)
This one here (where I ultimately got my answer)

It's initially for zMUD, but I'm pretty sure you can use it for CMUD. If not, I'll look into converting it over for CMUD.

Charneus

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

I did say it was off of the top of my head. Looking at the result and guessing what the original variable might have been I would say it requires 2 small corrections, and consequent adjustments for one of them.

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:34 am

Thanks for that one, Viji. I've been trying to write a function to do this without using %subregex for a while now, and it has been annoying me. Assuming that works, I should be able to plug the line into my function and never have to worry about it again :D

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

charneus: The SortByVal alias doesn't work for me. :-/ #SHOW @postsort doesn't return anything at all... This is what happens:

Starting out: #SHOW @lorelist
gives me this: animal=4|mech=39|scholarship=44|teaching=30|wind=0|appraisal=16|vocals=51|percussion=0|string=0

Then SortByVal @lorelist mentions this, echo-style:
Variable: + postsort (String)

Then #SHOW @postsort returns nothing at all, if it's supposed to. When I manually check the variable, it is indeed empty.

Then #SHOW @lorelist says the same thing it said before.

Vijilante: Now the show says this... it's too over my head for me to figure out what might be wrong:

004 --- animal|%rightback(%concat("000","50"),3) --- vocals|%rightback(%concat("000","43"),3) --- scholarship|%rightback(%concat("000","38"),3) --- mech|%rightback(%concat("000","29"),3) --- teaching|%rightback(%concat("000","15"),3) --- appraisal|%rightback(%concat("000","0"),3) --- wind|%rightback(%concat("000","0"),3) --- string|%rightback(%concat("000","0"),3) --- percussion

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Vijilante, am I right in thinking that you can't guarantee the order of the items in a db variable (in CMUD at least, maybe you could in zMUD)?

e.g.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Ah, yeah, for what it's worth, I need to store them. I actually don't ever need to display them, but my scripts need to know what they are to figure out what to do. :-) Or rather, if I could actually sort it correctly, I could write a really good script that would need to have those values stored.

I think I'm SOL, lol, unless/until numerical sorting is available. I wish it didn't delete leading zeros, because then I might be able to work around it.

Wizard Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 1201

Should be this to sort:

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Wizard Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 1201

Are you sure your db value is still 04 and not 4?

Example I just used above was the following:

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

I'm confused by the question... The db value for "animal" has always been 4. I can't make it 04 if I want to, because it deletes leading zeros. That's the reason I have problems sorting it, because it always sticks it in with the stuff in the 40s (or 400s, or 4000s, etc).

Or are you asking something else?

Wizard Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 1201

No it doesn't. Look at the db I just posted above your post just now. For that matter look at this one.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

That's so weird. When I go to the database variable and try to add a 0 in front of the 4, it immediately deletes it. I've tried this many times.

The text from the game reads just "4" so I would have to add zeros to it. But every time I've tried it simply does not let me. Now I'm really confused.

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Hah, now here's something weird. Now that I've uninstalled and reinstalled, it doesn't delete leading zeros. WTH? Oh well, not gonna complain.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:26 am

*lol* ah the wonders of computers Laughing

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

The bug fixes for %subregex in 2.36 have this working perfectly now. The code I used to test it was

Apprentice Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 109

Oh awesome, I'll try that out hopefully tonight or tomorrow when I get a moment. Thanks! :D