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sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 12:59
by Steven Avery
Hi,

Greetings. I was comparing my File Managers on a certain type of sort (show all files in sub-folder) and in XYplorer the ability was easy to find :

Edit - Show All Items in Branch

And it worked fine (one good alternative that I have used for some years seems to occasionally choke or struggle on my Eudora embedded and attachment files that have 10s of thousands of files, XYPlorer does fine.)

Then I go to sort. Size is clear. Date is clear. Removing the time from the date is clear (right-click column header, one of the options).

So what I want is a sort by two levels : Modify-Date-->Size. That is, first all of today's files will show up, in size order, then yesterdays etc.

(The reason is that I want to see the size of all the "active" Eudora mailboxes, ie. the ones that had something downloaded today, maybe I will separately check yesterdays. Then I chop up, reduce the larger ones and even if there is a crash or an abrupt reboot, rebuilding any open mailboxes is quick. It is generally good to keep the active mailbox files down to a reasonable size, say 5,000 emails rather than 30,000, and the easiest way to get a quick fix on the large files is a file manager showing all the files in the subfolders. Numbers get large if you automatically download forum mail and filter it here and there.)

There may be some Windows standard on this with control keys or double clicking, but I have not remembered or found it.

Can you help me out ? Great program.

Thanks.

Steven Avery
Bayside, NY

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 13:38
by admin
Hi and welcome,

XY can do so-called "secondary sorting": First sort by Date (column) then hold SHIFT and click the Size column.

BUT: It won't do what you want because even if the Time part of the date is not shown the dates are still ordered by the exact time down to the millisecond (millisecond is not shown normally but still used for ordering). So there will hardly be any files of the exact same date to form a group that can be internally sorted by Size.

So, currently it is not possible I'm afraid.

Don

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 13:53
by Steven Avery
admin wrote:Hi and welcome, XY can do so-called "secondary sorting": First sort by Date (column) then hold SHIFT and click the Size column. BUT: It won't do what you want because even if the Time part of the date is not shown the dates are still ordered by the exact time down to the millisecond (millisecond is not shown normally but still used for ordering). So there will hardly be any files of the exact same date to form a group that can be internally sorted by Size. So, currently it is not possible I'm afraid. Don
Thanks.

So can I consider this thread to be the official enhancement request ? You could accomplish this the slightly inelegant way of having a separate field that is "date only" - or you could try for the more elegant way, somehow giving the sort option when the time is not showing.

There are a number of times you might want to sort by "date" create or modify, and then have a secondary sort. e.g. When you are looking for what happened on a specific date, what files were modified, or created, the secondary sort might be the extension, or the path, not just the size. However, modify-date-size is clearly a big one, to know what major files are being changed (or added if use create).. today.

Thanks.

Steven

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 14:56
by admin
I think that makes a lot of sense. I simply added this to the next beta version.

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 16:30
by admin
Steven Avery wrote:Hi,

Greetings. I was comparing my File Managers on a certain type of sort (show all files in sub-folder) and in XYplorer the ability was easy to find :

Edit - Show All Items in Branch
BTW, XYplorer also has Branch View (in the Toolbar, and in the Views submenu), a view more commonly known as "Flat View".

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 17:12
by j_c_hallgren
Steven Avery wrote:So can I consider this thread to be the official enhancement request ? You could accomplish this the slightly inelegant way of having a separate field that is "date only" - or you could try for the more elegant way, somehow giving the sort option when the time is not showing.
Hi and welcome to XY forums from me as well!

Did you notice that your requested enhancement was available via a beta vers within 2 hours of your post above? Not saying that happens all the time but it's that type of extremely prompt response that makes us love Don and XY so VERY much!

That alone should make you want to buy a license right now...esp since the lifetime license will be converting to fixed term in 2013.

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 18:46
by admin
Looks like he's gone. :) Anyway, I think it's a good enhancement for everybody. 8)

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 19:20
by Steven Avery
Hi,

Except that I already own a lifetime license !
Just was a bit dormant in use, that changing now.

Well done :) .
I'll be running off to Beta-land.

I will try to give a nice write-up on Donationcoder and a couple of friends about all this.

(A week or two would be impressive, to the max. Two hours is about the top of the la creme. It shows a developer who understands the program and the users.)

Steven

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 19:53
by admin
Sounds good, thanks!

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 30 Dec 2012 04:14
by Steven Avery
Hi,

Works great !
I get an immediate view of all my large active (mail downloaded today) mailboxes.

The Donationcoder thread is

Xyplorer - last days to buy the lifetime license
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/inde ... ic=33470.0

Steven

Re: sort question - date, size

Posted: 30 Dec 2012 10:20
by admin
Cool, thanks! :D

And, BTW, cool and intrepid that you published your praise before even testing the feature. :)