Thank you for your code. Can you also advice how to sort in desc order?

Thank you again.
Michael

i added the followin code

declare

temp varchar2(40);
lbl varchar2(40);
begin
lbl:=get_item_property(name_in(‘system.trigger_item’),label);
temp:= :system.trigger_item;
if get_item_property(temp,VISIBLE)= ‘TRUE’ then
set_item_property(:parameter.HIDENUM,VISIBLE,PROPERTY_TRUE);
set_item_property(:parameter.HIDENUM,ENABLED,PROPERTY_TRUE);
set_item_property(:parameter.HIDENUM,label,lbl);
go_item(:parameter.HIDENUM);
set_item_property(temp,VISIBLE,PROPERTY_FALSE);
:parameter.HIDENUM:=temp;
end if;
/*if get_item_property(‘number_game.TWO’,displayed)=’TRUE’ then
set_item_property(‘number_game.TWO’,displayed,’FALSE’);
end if;
if get_item_property(‘number_game.THREE’,displayed)=’TRUE’ then
set_item_property(‘number_game.THREE’,displayed,’FALSE’);
end if;*/
if lbl =’EXIT’ then exit_form(no_validate);
end if;
end;

l_num_tbl num_tbl := num_tbl (6, 12, 9, 1, 54, 21, 11, 2, 12, 12, 11);
l_idx INTEGER;
i INTEGER;
BEGIN
DECLARE
– here is where the sorting magic starts
– we create an Associative Array that is indexed by binary_integer
– we know that this collections keys (the only thing we care about in this case)
– will always be kept in sorted order
TYPE num_aat_t IS TABLE OF NUMBER
INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;

TYPE num_aat_t2 IS TABLE OF num_aat_t
INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
– two dimension table to handle duplicates
l_num_aat num_aat_t2;
BEGIN
l_idx := l_num_tbl.FIRST;

– loop over all elements in the l_num_tbl collection
– that we want to sort. Use every element in l_num_tbl
– as a key for the l_num_aat associative array. Associate
– the key with a meaningless value; we do not care about
– the value in this case.
LOOP
i := 1;

— if duplicate increment second dimension
WHILE l_num_aat.EXISTS (l_num_tbl (l_idx))
AND l_num_aat (l_num_tbl (l_idx)).EXISTS (i)
LOOP
i := i + 1;
END LOOP;

l_num_aat (l_num_tbl (l_idx)) (i) := 0;
l_idx := l_num_tbl.NEXT (l_idx);
EXIT WHEN l_idx IS NULL;
END LOOP;

– remove all elements from l_num_tbl
l_num_tbl.DELETE;
– start repopulating l_num_tbl – in the proper order -
– from the sorted collection of keys in the l_num_aat collection
l_idx := l_num_aat.FIRST;

LOOP
FOR i IN 1 .. l_num_aat (l_idx).LAST
LOOP
l_num_tbl.EXTEND;
l_num_tbl (l_num_tbl.LAST) := l_idx;
END LOOP;

l_idx := l_num_aat.NEXT (l_idx);
EXIT WHEN l_idx IS NULL;
END LOOP;
END;

– DONE! At this point, l_num_tbl is properly sorted
l_idx := l_num_tbl.FIRST;

LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (‘ ** ‘ || l_num_tbl (l_idx));
l_idx := l_num_tbl.NEXT (l_idx);
EXIT WHEN l_idx IS NULL;
END LOOP;
END;

It being designed after Pascal led to so many of the problems with type system.

I can understand your hesitation. I think the approach outlined in the next installment on Sorting PL/SQL Collections may appeal more to you. See Sorting PL/SQL Collections, the quite simple way (part two: Have the SQL Engine do the heavy lifting)