Date:         Wed, 4 Aug 1999 22:00:22 +1000
Reply-To:     Chris Latham & Natalie Myers <chrisnat@OZEMAIL.COM.AU>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Chris Latham & Natalie Myers <chrisnat@OZEMAIL.COM.AU>
Subject:      Help : Building / determining org structure from jumbled data
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Folks,

I need some help trying to build an organisational tree structure from
our corporate phone directory.

The file I have contains employee name, manager's name and job
description.
The problem is that is is sorted by employee name.....

example

   EMPLOYEE         REPORTS-TO    POSITION
   A Allan          B Dole        Jnr WAN Administrator
   A Jones          D Man         Financial Controller
   A Smith          B Dole        LAN Administrator
   A Thomas         A Jones       Accountant
   B Dole           C Link        Communications Manager
   C Link           D Man         CIO
   D Man            **TOP**       CEO
   E Net            B Dole        WAN Administrator

We have previously used data from the Human Resources system which has
been
in correct hierarchal order.

Desired order
   EMPLOYEE         REPORTS-TO    POSITION
   D Man            **TOP**       CEO
   A Jones          D Man         CFO
   A Thomas         A Jones       Accountant
   C Link           D Man         CIO
   B Dole           C Link        Communications Manager
   A Smith          B Dole        LAN Administrator
   E Net            B Dole        WAN Administrator
   A Allan          B Dole        Jnr WAN Administrator

I have some existing programs based on the desired order above that I
would like to be able to use (assuming I can get this order again...)

My attempts so far have involved looping through the data and building
arrays
but I come unstuck after the 3rd level of the tree....
(the code is also getting a bit unwieldy)

There are about 10-15 levels in the tree (it's a large company...)

To add to the fun, the report-to field is blank or incorrect in quite a
few cases so there are a few orphan nodes lurking about the place.
(but they can just be dumped at the end of the tree)

Can anyone suggest how I might get to my desired format?

I have a fairly high spec NT Server to run on (1/2 GB RAM, Dual PII) so
processing
is unlikely to be too much of a problem.
Also only licence BASE and AF (plus Intrnet, Share etc) but no SAS/Stat
etc

Thanks for your help

Chris Latham
Latham Consulting P/L
Sydney, Australia