I cannot understand how the @StringArrayElementList sorts the elements by their order on the form.  I am running this and the elements are coming up in a different order.  At first I thought they were in order, then I moved some elements on the form but the output stayed the same.  Then I changed the Navigation sequence hoping that would have an effect but still coming out in an order that does not match the layout top to bottom, left to right.  The output is consistent, but not in proper order.
Here is a list of the Y positions in order of element list:
736,2,7,2,38,39,116,404,461,44,43,44,71,72,93 etc.

You can see that the very first item is wrong.  It was originally at the top of the form, but moved to bottom later.  The "4xx" items were also moved down to bottom of form.  Are these perhaps coming out in the order they were added?  How can they be sorted to come out sorted in Y/X order?

In Programming Guide, page 119, it uses this function and says that it returns a list of the elements in the order they are on the form.  This example is in the section for @NumberOfElements(), bust uses the function as part its example.

WriteLn("There are " + n + " elements on this " + @Layout + " form.")
ForceRedraw()
Loiter(2000)
WriteLn("")
WriteLn("And here they are in the order they appear on the form:")
WriteLn("")
For i = 1 to n
vElements += @AccessStringArray(@StringArrayElementList(), i) +
@NewLine()
Next
WriteLn(vElements)

Yes, there are 5 tab pages. Only one group of radio buttons.
And 0 subforms.

The very first item, Y=436 is a Static text label, that was moved from a tab to the canvas bossom.  Here is a quick list in order returned
with Y values
736 - Static Text on canvas
2 - Static Push Button on canvas
7 - Text Box on canvas
2 - Check box next to previous textbox
2 - Another check box, next to previous on
38  - first tab page
39 - box on tab
Wait, now I think I see a trend.  It looks like all Static text element types are being done befor data entry elements.  All boxes and Static text labels are first, then followed by Text fields, combo boxes, and radio buttons, etc. in correct order.  Then when getting to next Tab all the boxes and Static Text labesl are first and then the normal data entry fields. ?  Am I wrong to think these were supposed to be in order of layout?  Or does it do both? does it do static elements in order and then data entry elements in order?

Thank you for making that clear.  Will the sort work correctly with Y and X as numbers or will they sort as text?  Does that mean that maybe all might need leading zeroes for correct sort?  Do I need to make something like YYYY-XXXX-ElementName to sort, then drop off the YYYY-XXXX-prefix?  Can you give a sample of how to get the element list, assgn the Y/X positions, and end up with a new list of Element Names sorted by Y and then by X?

I tried to use your formula but it is not workiing for me.  What is happening now is that I am seeing all the fields from all the tabs mixed together.  This is worse than what I had at first.  Does anyone else have a way to do sort the elements in order by screen layouts and tabs?

New Tab Pages have an almost unique Element Type, Static Group. 
Using that value, then this may do the trick for you:

var vElementName as string
var vElementList as string
var vListCount as Int
var vLoop as Int
var vThisElement as String

var vSortIndex as Int			//Sorting Index = (800 * YPos) + XPos
var vIndexedElements as String		//Unsorted Indexed elements
var vSortedPageElements as String	//Sorted Indexed elements

// List all elements on the form
vElementList = @StringArrayElementList()

// Count elements in the list
vListCount = @CountStringArray(vElementList)

// Loop through all the elements
vLoop = 1
While(vLoop <= vListCount) {

     // Extract each element in the list, Set the "ThisElement" pointer
     vElementName = @AccessStringArray(vElementList, vLoop)
     SetThisElement(vElementName)

     // Make Sort Index for elements using Y/Z positions
     vSortIndex = (800 * @YPos(ThisElement) ) + @XPos(ThisElement)
     vIndexedElements += vSortIndex + vElementName + "/Y:" + @YPos(ThisElement) + "/X:" + @XPos(ThisElement) +    ";"

     // Sort elements by Y/Z positions on each Tab Page / FieldType = "1016/Static Group"
     If @ElementType(ThisELement) = "1016" Then {
	     vIndexedElements = @SortStringArray(vIndexedElements,1)		//Sort current element list by numbers
	     vSortedPageElements += vIndexedElements				//Append to Sorted list
	     vIndexedElements = ""						//Clear for next page of elements
	     WriteLn(vSortedPageElements)					//Review list of Sorted elements
	     }								     //Can Copy/Paste to review
	vLoop += 1
     }								    //End of While Loop

 

Logic of the programming:
1.  The TabPage has an Element Type = Static Group, or code 1016. 
2.  Go thru the list of elements and make a sorting Index and append each element to a string array (vIndexedElements).
3.  When you get to an element type = 1016, then this is the begining of a new tab.
4.  So take the existing list, sort it, and append the results to the Sorted elements (vSortedPageElements).
5.  Now clear out the current list (vIndexedElements) so that you can start again on the next Tab Page.
6.  Repeat through all elements (vListCount)

Is this a Sensible Solution?

Re the formula for this line:

"vSortIndex = (800 * @YPos(ThisElement) ) + @XPos(ThisElement)" 

That was created thanks to the formula that Mark left in earlier message.
Quote:


His formula used the form width.  I just decided to use 800 as a constant that was high enough to cover a good range of form widths.  It could be any number that you want.

Re the extra information, I think that I might be able to come up with a function to do this.  No promises, but the earlier code I provided does a lot of the work now, needs some snhancements .......

OK, that sounds good because I was having trouble to remove extra numbers at the front from WriteLn.  I will try to ss how that works.