sorting SIMBAD Criteria query

[Demonperformer]

I have a search expression [otype="star" & dec <80 & dec>75 & cat='HD' & Vmag <=10.0 & Vmag>9.0] for the SIMBAD criteria query page [https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-fsam]. I want this as an ascii file and have set the output page [https://simbad.cds.unistra.fr/simbad/sim-fout] accordingly.

So far so good.

The problem is that the output is in (as far as I can make out) a TOTALLY random order, which is utterly unhelpful. Now I know that if I am displaying the result on an HTML page I can click the little arrow at the top of the column and get it sorted there, but as there are over 300 records, a text file is much more useful. I have tried sorting the HTML page and clicking the "store this result in Ascii" option and it reverts to its random order. Unless I am going completely blind, there is nothing on the "output options" page that talks about ordering the output, but my gut-feeling is that there has to be some sort of command (sort=? order=?) that I should be able to add to my original query to get it to order the output file automatically. I have tried all the options I can think of ['sort(order)='; 'sort(order) by'; etc] with no joy. I have tried various 'help' pages, but they don't. Surely, it shouldn't be this difficult.

So, does anyone understand the program sufficiently to help me get the ordered output file I require?

Thanks.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Demonperformer

[Martin Meredith]

Maybe if you save it as a delimited ASCII file you could import into a spreadsheet and sort from there?

[Demonperformer]

Thanks, Martin. That is certainly an idea. But I am surprised at the lack of an option to just get it to output in a particular order, particularly as it is capable of sorting the results in HTML.