How to include additional data to the date field

Let me tell you how the data is sorted and listed.

First, an alphanumeric sort is done to the information in the "Name of Club or Combine" field.

Then a secondary sort is carried out on the "Date of Race" field with older dates listed lower than newer dates.

The first thing you need to know about formatting your dates, is that the dates are really treated as text strings. This means that 05/3/2009 will sort differently than 05/3/2009. Take the example below: by omitting the leading zero in front of the "3" for the race date on May 3rd, 2009. The way the races sort is different then when you use the correct format ( mm/dd/yyyy ). The thing is, Winspeed does it correctly and you will always get it right if you cut and paste the data off the race sheet as you submit the sheet to the database.

Wrong WayRight Way
05/3/200905/03/2009
05/10/0905/10/2009
5/17/200905/17/2009

If you want your listings to be easier to figure out which race date is for which race station, then after the date put the station name. For example: instead of putting "05/17/2008" in the "Date of Race" input field, put "05/17/2008 Ashland 2" (If Ashland was the name of the race station and 2 was the second time you released from that point on the schedule).

However, if you are going to mix formats (some with the extra data and some without), then you will need to put a blank space after the date. For example "05/24/2008 ".

Here is how it should look if mixing just dates and dates with addional data (Ignore the "" quote markds):

"05/24/2008 " (Note: see the blank space after the 8)
"05/17/2008 Ashland 2"
"05/10/2008 " (Note: see the blank space after the 8)
"05/03/2008 Ashland 1"

Take a look at the Evergreen Concourse's listings. They use these tricks I have mentioned to make their listings more readable and to put the championships and average speeds, etc always at the top.

If after having read this, you now want to go back and change how your listings are being sorted, you can edit the races you want to change. If you don't know how to edit them, read the help file on editing.

Help Files

Best regards,

John
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