File: coreutils.info,  Node: Punctuation vs letters,  Next: The tilde ~,  Prev: Version sort punctuation,  Up: Version sort implementation

30.2.4 Punctuation vs letters
-----------------------------

Rule 2.B.a says letters sort before non-letters (after breaking down a
string to digit and non-digit parts).

     $ cat input6
     a%
     az
     $ sort -V input6
     az
     a%

   The input strings consist entirely of non-digits, and based on the
above algorithm have only one part, all non-digits (‘a%’ vs ‘az’).

   Each part is then compared lexically, byte-by-byte; ‘a’ compares
identically in both strings.

   Rule 2.B.a says a letter like ‘z’ sorts before a non-letter like ‘%’
– hence ‘az’ appears first (despite ‘z’ having ASCII value of 122, much
larger than ‘%’ with ASCII value 37).