[Ben]

Mike, could the "#" possibly (I guess optionally as not everyone has the same taste) be put at the end of an otherwise unaltered alphabetic sorting sequence, = after the Z? The first screen in the song list (before scrolling down) is full with odd looking song titles, like ".38 Special" (Mark Knopfler) and "#9 Dream" (Lennon).
Personally, I'd prefer to have it begin with "A".
Seems I only find these insubstantial suggestions always ☺.

Thanks.
Ben

[Zubersoft]

So do you want all songs starting with numbers and symbols to be put at the very end of the list? The ordering of the alphabet list needs to match the ordering of the list next to it.

[Skip]

I just tried both examples ["#",  ".", "$", "-"] and they all resulted in the title + leading symbol being listed at the very beginning, under "#". Having the numbers at he end of the title doesn't affect their list position. It doesn't seem it would make much difference if they're at the beginning or the end of the list, just select "#" and there they are. Just putting a non-alpha character seems to cause the title to be listed under "#".

[Ben]

>>do you want all songs starting with numbers and symbols to be put at the very end of the list?<<
Yes, that would be my preferred choice, having the A-Z sorting option start with "A", rather than with non-alpha characters.
Consequently, the # Tab in the list (on the right side in my case) would be last, too, yes.

In the Genre view, because there are not that many entries (I have 32), a numeric view option (like you offer in the Song View though it's not usable for me on account of the large amount of entries) would allow to get rid of the letter headers, and the view would look real tidy.

Skip, thanks for checking, too.

[sciurius]

So do you want all songs starting with numbers and symbols to be put at the very end of the list? The ordering of the alphabet list needs to match the ordering of the list next to it.

I second this.

[BRX]

I third this. But my preference is to leave it as it is because numbers are sorted before the other characters in almost all applications.

[sciurius]

I have no problem with numbers being first -- it is just that anything not letters/digits gets sorted with the '#'.

Best would be to have an 'anything else' group and have it sorted at the end. Or use dictionary order.

And, while on the topic, I personally see no use for the '?' selector.

[BRX]

Another way could be to ignore non-alphanumeric characters completely by the sorting like already for some characters. This should be completely optional though. I'm not quite sure though how this results in in the end, how much titles would be affected and if I myself would use and like it.

[sciurius]

Another way could be to ignore non-alphanumeric characters completely by the sorting...

Yes. That's called dictionary order.

[BRX]

Ah, o.k. then. A great mind and a little-less-than-great mind think alike then. ;-)

[itsme]

I'm fine with the current sorting, it is how sorting is done almost everywhere else.
The only change I would appreciate is separate tabs for numbers and special characters within the alphabet list at the right.
Switching to dictionary sorting would force me to change a number of things: as a computer user I am used to sort things to the top by names starting with _ (underscore) or __ (double underscore), so I use it also in MSP.

[Skip]

I use a number to ensure a particular item is placed at the top of a list, didn't know about using a symbol for this purpose. Maybe a switch to select between the current way and the dictionary way, if it doesn't require significant coding? On reflection, maybe better to select symbols/numbers at beginning/end or dictionary?

[Ben]

Like Johan, I wonder indeed if anyone uses "?"
The random suggestion may find some rare appliance in the song view, if at all, but surely n e v e r in any of the group view tabs.

[BRX]

I admit, apart from testing it once I haven't used it either so far.

I can imagine two uses for random suggestions though.

- If I decide to play, jam, learn or practise a random song alone or with others
- If I want to create a setlist with random songs from the main songlist or a collection

So in general I like that the option is there. If it warrants the ? in the sidelist, I don't know.

[Zubersoft]

I myself use the '?' for randomly selecting a song to play on the songs tab if I don't know what I'm in the mood to play. I also know there are other users who take advantage of it. It probably doesn't add much value on tabs other than the Songs tab though (although I could see the argument for showing it when viewing the list of songs under a group). If it's really that big of a deal to have it shown, I can add an option to hide it for those that don't want it.

It sounds like the majority of people in the thread want the numbers at the start, and the symbols at the end. Is that correct? What single character should I use to represent the symbols group at the end? I could use * which is often used as a wildcard. In order to change the sorting to support this, I'll have to make quite a few changes both on the tablet and in the companion app (I believe), so I may not be able to get to it right away, as I think the Windows 10 version is higher priority at the moment.

Thanks,
Mike