Re: sorted phone directory

[Jaroslav Hajtmar <hajtmar@gyza.cz>]

Hello Johan,
Certainly it is possible to combine solution of Wolfgang with retrieving 
data from an external file without having to sort the data by another 
application. Enough to define a simple ConTeXt macro that contains a 
piece of Lua code. Here my modification of Wolfgang last solution for 
your inspiration:


\def\processexternalfile#1{
\startluacode
   myextfile=io.open('#1',"r")
     repeat
     line=myextfile:read()
       if line ~= nil then
         splitline=string.split(line, ",")
         context('\\Telefon['..splitline[1]..']{'..splitline[2]..'}')
       end
     until (line == nil)
   myextfile:close()
\stopluacode
}


\mainlanguage[swedish]

\definedescription
  [TelefonEntry]
  [width=2em]


\unexpanded\def\TelefonCommand#1#2#3%
   {\hbox to \hsize{#2\hfil#3}\par}


\definesorting[Telefon][Telefone]

\starttext


Wolfgang's solution:

\Telefon[Eldallah Awdawebi]{78423}
\Telefon[Nada Pipidepaulou]{78264}
\Telefon[Aölaksd aölksd]{044578264}
\Telefon[Ö]{320399}
\Telefon[å]{23402394}
\Telefon[åå]{23042}
\Telefon[ååå]{098234}

\startcolumns[n=3]
\placelistofsorts[Telefon][criterium=all,command=\TelefonCommand]
\stopcolumns


\blank[big]


% Create external CSV file "extfile.csv".
% Structure of this file is:

% Eldallah Awdawebi,78423
% Nada Pipidepaulou,78264
% Aölaksd aölksd,044578264
% Ö,320399
% å,23402394
% åå,23042
% ååå,098234


My solution - processing an external file \quotation{extfile.csv}:

\processexternalfile{extfile.csv}


\startcolumns[n=3]
\placelistofsorts[Telefon][criterium=all,command=\TelefonCommand]
\stopcolumns



\stoptext

Best regards
Jaroslav





Dne 2.8.2011 22:05, Thomas A. Schmitz napsal(a):
> On 08/02/2011 04:08 PM, Johan Sandblom wrote:
>> Thank you for your suggestions!
>>
>> Jaroslav, having the numbers in a separate file and sorting there,
>> while possible, would increase overhead in managing the document and
>> make it impossible to enter phone numbers at other places in the text.
>>
> Ultimately, it is of course your decision what you want to do, but I 
> think you were a bit quick to reject Jaroslav's suggestion. TeX isn't 
> meant to store databases. Having the information in some external file 
> will actually make things much easier in the middle and long run. It's 
> easier to manage, it scales better, and it will allow you to reuse 
> this information in other ways. And ConTeXt is excellent in that it 
> can handle many different input formats. I wrote something about using 
> databases in xml or sql format in the latest MAPS issue; csv is easy 
> to produce (libreoffice calc can produce csv). You could even store 
> the information in a raw lua table and then retrieve it via some 
> macros. I think the sorting itself should be done in ConTeXt because 
> language support for the other solutions is probably not as 
> straightforward (if it exists at all), but I would definitely store 
> the information in some other format. Again, it is your decision, and 
> of course we don't know what special requirements you have, but using 
> some sort of well-known format would make your solution much more 
> future-proof.
>
> Good luck
>
> Thomas
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