Rem - 23 Aug 2000

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I have a script that uses the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit utility dumpel.exe to load and format event-log data in Microsoft Excel. The script works well, but I'd like to programmatically sort the events by date and time in descending order instead of the default ascending order. The Excel object model provides a Sort method, but I can't figure out the correct syntax to successfully call Sort in VBScript code. I tried the script in Listing 1 without success. I also tried enclosing the parameter list in parentheses and omitting the named parameter tags without success. What am I doing wrong?

Excel's Sort method uses a concept called named parameters. Named parameters provide a mechanism in which you don't have to provide values for unused optional parameters or parameters that provide an acceptable default value. Although you can use named parameters with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), VBScript doesn't natively support named parameters.

Because VBScript doesn't support named parameters, you must follow two guidelines to successfully use the Sort method in VBScript code. First, you must omit the parameter names that appear to the left of the := operator, which means you also delete the := operator. Second, you must provide a placeholder for all parameters, including optional parameters and parameters with default values. You code parameters with no values as blank entries.

Listing 2 contains the modified script. Listing 2 is similar to Listing 1, with a few exceptions: