(If one string runs out of letters to compare, then it is deemed to come first for example, "cart" comes before "carthorse".) The result of arranging a set of strings in alphabetical order is that words with the same first letter are grouped together, and within such a group words with the same first two letters are grouped together, and so on.Ĭapital letters are typically treated as equivalent to their corresponding lowercase letters.
If the first letters are the same, then the second letters are compared, and so on, until the order is decided. The string whose first letter appears earlier in the alphabet comes first in alphabetical order. To decide which of two strings comes first in alphabetical order, initially their first letters are compared. (The system is not limited to alphabets in the strict technical sense languages that use a syllabary or abugida, for example Cherokee, can use the same ordering principle provided there is a set ordering for the symbols used.) The ordering of the strings relies on the existence of a standard ordering for the letters of the alphabet in question. Other advantages are that one can easily find the first or last elements on the list (most likely to be useful in the case of numerically sorted data), or elements in a given range (useful again in the case of numerical data, and also with alphabetically ordered data when one may be sure of only the first few letters of the sought item or items).Īlphabetical order is the basis for many systems of collation where items of information are identified by strings consisting principally of letters from an alphabet.
#Collate or not manual#
In automatic systems this can be done using a binary search algorithm or interpolation search manual searching may be performed using a roughly similar procedure, though this will often be done unconsciously. The main advantage of collation is that it makes it fast and easy for a user to find an element in the list, or to confirm that it is absent from the list. When an order has been defined in this way, a sorting algorithm can be used to put a list of any number of items into that order.
However, even if the order of the classes is irrelevant, the identifiers of the classes may be members of an ordered set, allowing a sorting algorithm to arrange the items by class.įormally speaking, a collation method typically defines a total order on a set of possible identifiers, called sort keys, which consequently produces a total preorder on the set of items of information (items with the same identifier are not placed in any defined order).Ī collation algorithm such as the Unicode collation algorithm defines an order through the process of comparing two given character strings and deciding which should come before the other. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filing systems, library catalogs, and reference books.Ĭollation differs from classification in that the classes themselves are not necessarily ordered. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. JSTOR ( March 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ĭollation is the assembly of written information into a standard order.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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