SortOrder

Sortorder, or sort order, is the rule or sequence used to arrange items in a list, table, or data structure. In computing and data processing, it determines the relative position of elements based on a comparison function or set of collation rules.

Common distinctions include ascending versus descending order. In numeric data, ascending means from smallest to largest; in text, ascending typically follows a lexicographic rule using a character set. The exact outcome for strings often depends on locale or collation rules, so different systems may yield different orders for the same data. Factors such as case sensitivity and accent sensitivity can further affect the result.

Collation and locale are central to sort order for text. A collation defines how string values are compared, including the handling of diacritics, punctuation, and digraphs. Locale-specific collations can produce different orders for identical strings across languages. Some situations require natural or alphanumeric sorting, where numeric substrings are treated as numbers (e.g., file2 before file10), rather than as plain characters.

Stability is another key property: a stable sort preserves the relative order of equal elements, which is important when sorting by multiple keys (for example, first by date, then by name).

Applications include database queries (ORDER BY clauses employing specific collations), file managers, user interfaces, and data export or reporting. Implementation considerations cover the choice of sorting algorithm, memory usage, and whether to perform in-memory versus external sorts for large datasets. Understanding sort order and its dependencies ensures predictable data presentation and accurate results in multilingual and multi-key contexts.