.* Example by TenFiftyTwo(c).

.* &arg1. The number of the paragraph to sort.

.* &arg2. The sort type (a)scending or (d)escending.

.* The pipeline reads its input and selects the specified paragraph and sorts

.* it, writing the result back to its caller.

.* Note. that if any input record contains the hexadecimal characters x'fc'

.* through x'ff'; you will need to substitute the character for another character

.* not present in the record.

pipe (endchar ?)

     in                               .* Input.

     | literal xfdfe                  .* Ensure paragraph is marked.

     | strip                          .* Trim off whitespace.

     | a: locate                      .* Route out blank records.

     .* Concatenate groups of records that make up a paragraph.

     | specs xfc 1 1-* n              .* Insert start of line flag.

     | split after str xfc            .* Split into individual records.

     | b: faninany                    .* Feed blank records back into pipeline.

     | join until str xfc             .* Join records in current paragraph.

     | c: nlocate xfd                 .* Go and mark start of paragraph.

     | d: faninany                    .* Feed paragraph marker back into pipeline.

     | split before str xfd           .* Separate records back into paragraph format.

     .* Select the paragraph that we want to sort.

     | e: fromlab pat /Para#&arg1*/   .* Select records between the start of the..

     | f: tolabel pat xfd2a           .* ..paragraph and the start of the next.

     | sort anycase &arg2             .* Sort the paragraph.

     | nlocate /Para#/                .* Discard the paragraph marker.

     | specs recno 1 1-* nw           .* Insert leading record number.

     | g: fanin 1 0 2                 .* Merge all the streams.

     | nlocate /Para#/                .* Discard all paragraph markers.

     | nlocate xfdfe                  .* Discard start of file marker.

     | change xfd //                  .* Discard blank record marker.

     | out                            .* Output.

     ?

     a:

     | specs xfd 1                    .* Indicate blank records with a marker.

     | b:

     ?

     c:

     | specs 1-* 1 write              .* Mark the start of a paragraph.

             /Para#/ n

             recno strip n

     | d:

     ?

     e:

     | elastic                        .* Handle records that come before start..

     | g:                             .* ..of a paragraph.

     ?

     f:

     | elastic                        .* Handle records that come after the end of..

     | g:                             .* ..a paragraph.