sorting problem

[sspk]

Hi All,
I have a prompt on a date and when i am running the report it's prompting for the date values but the problem it is showing the values in irregular manner.I did sort by ascending all those stuff but no use.
I need to see the dates in ascending order.Please it is urgent any suggestions will help me a lot

[almeids]

Is the data item you are sorting on an actual date or a text representation of a date?  You need to make sure any sorting is based on an actual Date data type, otherwise for example you may get April sorting before January.  If you need to use a formatted text item in your report for some reason, add the date item on which it is based to your query, sort on the date, and display the text.

[sspk]

Is the data item you are sorting on an actual date or a text representation of a date?  You need to make sure any sorting is based on an actual Date data type, otherwise for example you may get April sorting before January.  If you need to use a formatted text item in your report for some reason, add the date item on which it is based to your query, sort on the date, and display the text.

Hi ,thank you very much.
The date(follow-up date(varchar2(20)) data item has some null values also.so i am prompting like this follow-up date in(?MYDATEPROMPT?).So when i am running the report it's giving the values like what you have said i.e.
01-APR-08
01-DEC-08
01-JUL-08
03-APR-08
03-MAR-08
08-APR-08
08-MAR-08
08-DEC-08..........
Can you explain it clearly( i am new to this).what to do in step by step