ACC2000: How to Sort Titles Without Including the Leading Articles (The, A, or An) (210556)

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For example, take the following list of book titles: If you were to sort this list by using the custom function described in this article in a query, you would receive the following list: Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
To have book titles returned without the leading article, create the following function:

Option Explicit

Function GetTitle(Titles) As String

   Dim sp As Integer

   sp = InStr(1, Titles, Chr$(32))
   If sp > 0 Then
      Select Case Left(Titles, sp - 1)
         Case "An", "A", "The"    ' add any other articles here!
            GetTitle = Mid(Titles, sp + 1)
         Case Else
            GetTitle = Titles
      End Select
   Else
       GetTitle = Titles
   End If

End Function
				

To sort a table on the Titles field, create a query with the following two columns in the query grid:

   Query
   -----
   Field: Sorted List: GetTitle([Titles])
      Sort: Ascending
      Show: No
   Field: [Titles]
      Show: Yes
				

The first column is a calculated field that extracts the text of the Titles field, but omits the leading article. The results of this calculation are sorted in ascending order. The first Show check box is cleared so that the query result shows the full title, including the leading articles.