<sort-as>
For elements that are sorted, the <sort-as>
element provides
text that is combined with the base sort phrase to construct the effective sort phrase. The text
can be specified in the content of the <sort-as>
element or in the
@value
attribute on the <sort-as>
element. The
<sort-as>
element is useful for elements where the base sort phrase is
inadequate or non-existent, for example, a glossary entry for a Japanese Kanji
phrase.
Content models
See appendix for information about this element in OASIS document type shells.
The <sort-as>
element can contain <text>
and
<keyword>
elements in order to enable content referencing. If a
<keyword>
element is used within <sort-as>
,
the @keyref
attribute can be used to set the sort phrase. If a
<keyword>
uses @keyref
and would otherwise also act
as a navigation link, the link aspect of the @keyref
attribute is
ignored.
As a specialization of <data>
, the <sort-as>
element is allowed in any context where <data>
is allowed. However,
the presence of <sort-as>
within an element does not, by itself,
indicate that the containing element should be sorted. Processors can choose to sort any
DITA elements for any reason. Likewise, processors are not required to sort any elements.
See Sorting for more information on
sorting.
<sort-as>
elements in the following locations:- For topics, the
<sort-as>
element can be included directly in<title>
,<searchtitle>
, or<navtitle>
when the different forms of title need different effective sort phrases. If the effective sort phrase is common to all the titles for a topic, the<sort-as>
element can be included as a direct child of the topic prolog anywhere<data>
is allowed. - For glossary entry topics, the
<sort-as>
element can be included directly in<glossterm>
or as a direct child of<prolog>
. - For topic references, the
<sort-as>
element can be included directly in the<navtitle>
or<title>
element within<topicmeta>
or as a child of<topicmeta>
. - For definition list items, include the
<sort-as>
element in the<dt>
element.
Processors SHOULD expect to encounter
<sort-as>
elements in the above locations. Processors that sort
SHOULD use the following precedence
rules:
- A
<sort-as>
element that is specified in a title takes precedence over a<sort-as>
element that is specified as a child of the topic prolog. - Except for instances in the topic prolog, processors only apply
<sort-as>
elements that are either a direct child of the element to be sorted or a direct child of the title- or label-defining element of the element to be sorted. - When an element contains multiple, direct-child,
<sort-as>
elements, the first direct-child<sort-as>
element in document order takes precedence. - When located
within the
<indexterm>
element, the<sort-as>
element is equivalent to<index-sort-as>
. It is an error for an<indexterm>
element to directly contain both<sort-as>
and<index-sort-as>
elements. - Sort phrases are determined after filtering and content reference resolution occur.
When a <sort-as>
element is specified, processors
that sort the containing element MUST
construct the effective sort phrase by prepending the content of the
<sort-as>
element to the base sort phrase. This ensures that two
items with the same <sort-as>
element but different base sort phrases
will sort in the appropriate order.
For example, if a processor uses the content of the
<title>
element as the base sort phrase, and the title of a topic
is "24 Hour Support Hotline" and the value of the <sort-as>
element
is "twenty-four hour", then the effective sort phrase would be "twenty-four hour24 Hour
Support Hotline".
Inheritance
+ topic/data ut-d/sort-as
Example
The following examples illustrate how a glossary entry for the Chinese ideographic character for "big" might specify an effective sort phrase of "dada" (the Pin-Yin transliteration for Mandarin):
<sort-as>
element located within
<glossterm>
<glossentry id="gloss-dada"> <glossterm><sort-as value="dada"/>大大</glossterm> <glossdef>Literally "big big".</glossdef> </glossentry>
<sort-as>
element within
<prolog>
<glossentry id="gloss-dada"> <glossterm>大大</glossterm> <prolog> <sort-as>dada</sort-as> </prolog> <glossdef>Literally "big big".</glossdef> </glossentry>
Attributes
The following attributes are available on this element: Universal attribute group and the attributes defined below.
@name
- Names the metadata item that the element represents. The default value is "sort-as".
Specializations of
<sort-as>
can set the default value of the@name
attribute to reflect the tag name of the specialized element. @value
- The value of the metadata item. When the
<sort-as>
element has content and the@value
attribute is specified, the@value
attribute takes precedence. If the@value
attribute is not specified and the<sort-as>
element does not contain content, then the<sort-as>
element has no effect.