Is there a piece of software that will change a simple string of letters (abcd, say, or acbd) to a simple string of numbers (which would then be, say, 1234, or 1324, based on something as basic as the place of the letters in the order of the alphabet)?

Even better, does anyone know of a way to do this directly in Filemaker 3 or 4? Or some OS7-9 Applescript, perchance, that I can run from within Filemaker?

I am sure this sort of kiddie-type 'encryption' must be catered for by some little script or other, but I have searched high and low and found nothing. I need it for a cataloguing system I am devising for use on 68k hardware and running on Filemaker Pro 4.1.

Go on, help me out - and give a machine a worthy retirement!