On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Jon Lang <datawea...@gmail.com> wrote: > ... When comparing two strings, establishing an order between them is > generally straightforward as long as both are composed of letters from > the same alphabet and with the same case; but once you start mixing > cases, introducing non-alphabetical characters such as spaces or > punctuation, and/or introducing characters from other alphabets, the > common-sense meaning of order becomes messy.
Well, there's locale considerations that can make it less straightforward, even with the same case and alphabet. EG, in Danish, "aa" comes after "zz". But at least there are agreed-upon rules, even if they are locale- specific, so your point about non-alphabetical characters needing definition holds. -y
