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Quite possibly, general usage of the app is evident from the picture. But there are a number of things that you need to know which you might not be able to guess. Here are my explanations, anyway.

When you run the app initially, the big box is empty. You could actually type up your list from scratch, observing the limitations suggested by the options on the left: ONE date per line (with data on the left and right of it), and no more.

Your list does not need to be in chronological order, and you can type up dates in different formats if you really want to. The data on the left and right of the date can be anything you wish, but it is better to avoid items, as far as possible, which can suggest a 2nd date in any way. (If you try hard enough, you can even crash the app by doing this.)

Lines do not have to include dates initially, but whatever line does not include a date (e.g. a comment) will be set aside as

What you see on the left is a list of bank receipts for payments made in relation to services rendered.

This is how it is shown within a computer folder.

When it comes to doing your accounts at the end of the year, or when you simply want to look back on the payments you have made each month, this list is not much good because it is in alphabetical order and not chronological order.

So my first step was to knock up a simple little program to sort my lists, which are in a simple standard format that I prefer, to make the dd-mm-yyyy dates (e.g. 03-05-2024) into an understandable sequence.

Then I had the idea, as I am doing now, of sharing my app with others, in the hope that it would be useful.

But wait a moment! Not everybody writes dates in the same way. For example, in Britain (where I am from), people generally prefer dates similar to mine, but with some variation such as d/m/yyyy (e.g. 3/5/2024) or even d/m/yy

(e.g. 3/5/24). In America, I believe that the use of formats such as 2024/5/3 is a bit more common, since they are less troublesome on the computer. Moreover, in Brazil (where I live), they use dates similar to the British preference (e.g. 03/05/2024), but they also write dates in a form like this: 1º de setembro de 2024. And so on. It seemed that my little app needed to explode into a much more complex one. And so it did, I can tell you! Producing dates in different forms is easy, but analyzing dates in different forms is nothing short of hell! I managed it though, as you will see.

Here is a screenshot of the listSort (by date) app that I produced:

Elaborated dates that are input will be understood as valid, but as soon as you press the SORT button, the elaborations will be removed. However, the lines involved will still make it into the main list display without being regarded as residue. Even if you type elaborations into the main list, they will still be removed every time you click on SORT. If you really want to include such elaborations in your output, it can be done though. After clicking on SORT and editing your list until it is clean and correct, AVOID CLICKING ON THE SORT BUTTON AGAIN. Type in your elaborations (day-suffixes and commas), and do a SAVE directly. Voila!

ABBREVIATED YEARS

residue: the aim of the app is to produce a clean list where every line contains a single date. Amongst other things, this restriction will facilitate any subsequent computer processing you may choose to do.

UPLOAD LIST and CHOOSE FOLDER buttons

If you choose a folder, it will simply display the names of the files it finds.

The list you upload can be one you have prepared manually, but it can also be a list you have saved from listSort itself, or obtained from another source.

Just as when you first open the app and possibly type up a list, immediately after upload, and on any occasion afterwards, you can edit the list in order to make corrections, additions, etc. Also on any other occasion, you can clear the main list box (by selecting everything and then DELeting), and type up a new list from scratch. The RESIDUE list you see at the bottom is also editable.

SORT BUTTON

From now on, the procedure is as follows. You choose a combination of date format options on the left (just click on them and the red arrows will indicate your choices), and then click on the SORT button to format the dates in the list and to put the list into order. Do this as many times as necessary.

Whenever you click on the SORT button, whatever the app does not understand will be put into RESIDUE at the bottom. If your dates have contained typing errors (e.g. 03-11=2024), these can be corrected manually in the RESIDUE box, and when you click on the SORT button again, the corrected date will be incorporated into the main list above it. Anything else you can leave in the box as permanent RESIDUE, or you can remove it if you wish.

INPUT/OUTPUT OPTIONS

Whatever OUTPUT options you choose on the left will be used to uniformly format the dates in your list, whenever the SORT button is pressed. In general, the dates you attempt to INPUT from some source (by typing, or via upload) need to conform to this set of formatting options. Anything different will be displayed initially, but as soon as you click on the SORT button, lines of data with date formats beyond those of the specified formats will be filtered off into RESIDUE. That said, many people prefer to add a few bells and whistles to their dates. In English, for example, dates such as "21st December, 2014", "6th Jan, 2021", "2nd April, 1999" etc. are not uncommon. Similarly in Portuguese, elaborated dates such as "1º de dezembro, 2012", including day-suffixes and/or commas, are often used. Here's how listSort handles them:

Abbreviated years, in a date such as "15/03/26", are not encouraged because they are potentially ambiguous: what century do they belong to? (Your list might be part of an historical document, for example.) They can be uploaded and displayed (or typed), but as soon as you click on the SORT button, they will be whisked away into RESIDUE. From there, in order to keep them in your list, you need to correct them (type in a full 4-digit year). Then, when you click on SORT, the line(s) involved will be reinstated in the main list.

What if you want to have abbreviated years in your final output list? No problem. The procedure is similar to that for lines with elaborated dates. Go correcting your list with 4-digit years and clicking on SORT until you have a list which is clean and correct. Then, change your 4-digit years into 2-digit ones. AVOID CLICKING ON THE SORT BUTTON AGAIN, and do a SAVE directly. QED.

If/When you upload your list once more into the app, the immediate display will leave your 2-digit years intact. To avoid having them put into RESIDUE, you can just change them into 4-digit dates. However, if you click on the SORT button and they are actually put into RESIDUE, they can easily be corrected with 4 digits in order to get them reinstated in the main list.

FULL PORTUGUESE DATES

If you choose the "full Portuguese" format for dates in the form e.g. "2 de março de 1924", the separators will automatically kick into the "space" option. Dashes, slashes etc. are never used with such dates.

OUTPUT TEXT button

Click on this button at any time to save whatever is on display. That includes RESIDUE if there is any. An example is shown on the right:

If you wish, you can correct the date in the RESIDUE before uploading it again into listSort, using your text editor. There is no need to move it from the RESIDUE up into the the main list. The app will do that automatically as soon as you load it.

Or you can just upload it unaltered. In this case the incorrect line will initially be included in the main list, but after pressing SORT, it will be rejected once more into the RESIDUE box, and you can correct it there for subsequent incorporation.