Re: Orthography of V-numbered variable stars? > ...incidentally, I wonder if anybody out there uses a fancy sort routing > for variables, or whether they are all done by hand (you can't sort them > alphabetically!). In fact, I surmise that the internal numeric identifiers > in the GCVS are primarily a sort code field, hence the padded zeros. And, > yes, you do need to sort variables "properly" from time to time... ...you > get in the habit of knowing the order, and on using an index etc invariably > tend to look for something like Per AX _after_ Per R, and not before as you > would if being purely alphabetic (well I do anyway). It may not by "fancy" as you may like, but I have been using the following program to sort variable star names. VSNET format to metacodes: http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/others/prog/DOS/vpre.c http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/others/prog/DOS/vpre.exe Metacodes to VSNET format: http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/others/prog/DOS/vpost.c http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/others/prog/DOS/vpost.exe Well, they were one of my "first" C codes when I start learning C ;-) ANDR ANDRR ANDAA ANDV335 CASCEa CYGV404 CYGV1500 SGRV10000 will become !0 !AR !JA ![00335 /LEa @[00404 @[01500 o[10000 after processing with vpre So, in order to sort, vpre <file.org | sort | vpost >file.srt Regards, Taichi Kato