.. index::
   pair: Utility; sortshp

.. _sortshp:

*****************************************************************************
 sortshp
*****************************************************************************

:Purpose: 
  Sorts a Shape data set based on a single column in ascending or
  descending order.  Supports INTEGER, DOUBLE and STRING column
  types. Useful for prioritizing shapes for rendering and/or labeling.
:Description:
  The idea here is that if you know that you need to display a certain
  attribute classed by a certain value, it will be faster for
  MapServer to access that value if it is at the beginning of the
  attribute file.
:Syntax:

  ::
  
     sortshp [infile] [outfile] [item] [ascending|descending]

:Example:
  This example uses a roads file ('roads_ugl') that has a field with
  road classes in integer format ('class1').
  
  ::
  
     sortshp roads_ugl roads-sort class1 ascending
     
:Result:
  A new Shape data set named 'roads-sort.shp' is created with shapes
  sorted in ascending order, according to the values in the 'class1'
  field, as shown below.

**Figure1: Attributes Before sortshp**

.. image:: ../images/sortshp-before.png

**Figure2: Attributes After sortshp**

.. image:: ../images/sortshp-after.png