[Koha-devel] Should the first 3 digits of cn_sort be sorted for dewey decimal?

[Michael Kuhn]

Hi Barton

 > this means that callnumbers
 >
 > 9.1 => 9_100000000000000
 > 80.1 => 80_100000000000000
 > 700.1 => 700_100000000000000
 >
 > when sorted ascending by cn_sort
 >
 > 700.1 => 700_100000000000000
 > 80.1 =>  80_100000000000000
 > 9.1 => 9_100000000000000
 >
 > Shouldn't these be zero padded to 3 digits, so that they sort as
 > follows?
 >
 > 009_100000000000000
 > 080_100000000000000
 > 700_100000000000000

Dewey Decimal Classification uses characters that indeed do look like 
Arabic numbers (standing for classes, divisions, sections), but these 
characters do not behave like numbers, so the correct sorting is 
actually not as you would expect (namely seen from the right to left)

   1
   2
  11
  21
100
230

but (and thus seen from left to right)

1
100
11
2
21
230

Hope this helps.

Best wishes: Michael
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