Default Sort Order
When you create a default report specification or preview report, RBF sets an initial default sort order based on the values in the first column of the table, view, or JoinDef on which the report is based. Two exceptions to this are Indented reports and Master/Detail joins, which can have multiple sort columns.
The following rules apply:
• If the data type of the sort column is character, RBF sorts report rows in ascending alphabetic order on the first column.
• If the data type of the sort column is numeric, RBF sorts report rows in ascending numeric order.
• If the data type of the sort column is date, then RBF sorts report rows according to ascending chronological order.
• Except for Indented reports, if the first column contains duplicate values, RBF sorts the rows in an indeterminable manner.
For Tabular reports with duplicate values in the first column, RBF prints the duplicate value only once and does not print a value in the first column until the value changes.