On Thu, Jan 04, 2001 at 09:28:26AM +0000, Piers Cawley wrote:
> And for 'proper' library type sorting (assuming all works are in
> English) we should really be doing something like:
>
> require Lingua::EN::Numbers;
> s/(\d+(?:\.\d+))/Lingua::EN::Numbers->($1)->get_string/eg;
>
> since in a library numbers get sorted based on how they are spoken
> based on the language of the work in whose title they appear.
IME they're sorted according to a mixture of the numeric value and how
the librarian would speak the number. For example, 4 is always sorted
before 5, despite coming later in the dictionary. Maybe I've only been
exposed to incompetent librarians who do it 'wrong', but I doubt it.
And in any case, I can think of three different ways of saying 1821 in
English alone.
One thousand eight hundred and twenty one
One thousand eight hundred twenty one
Eighteen hundred and twenty one
As far as *I* am concerned, the middle one is wrong (although I believe it
is considered correct in some parts of the world), and whether to use the
first or the thrid form would depend on context.
--
David Cantrell | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david
The voices said it's a good day to clean my weapons.
