By default, BIRT sorts string data according to ASCII values, so uppercase letters precede lowercase letters. For example, “Z” appears before “a.” The following list of values is an example of an ASCII sort:

Typically, users prefer to view a list of names in simple alphabetical order, without regard to capitalization. To display string values in case-insensitive alphabetical order, set the collation strength to primary or secondary.

Alternatively, use JavaScript’s toUpperCase( ) or toLowerCase( ) function to convert the values to all uppercase or all lowercase before sorting. The following expression is an example of a sort key expression that you specify:

Using this expression, the previous list of values appears alphabetically as: