Editing Alphabetical order (section)

===Special cases===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2017}}

====Modified letters====
In French, modified letters (such as those with [[diacritic]]s) are treated the same as the base letter for alphabetical ordering purposes. For example, ''rôle'' comes between ''rock'' and ''rose'', as if it were written ''role''. However, languages that use such letters systematically generally have their own ordering rules. See {{slink||Language-specific conventions}} below.

====Ordering by surname====
In most cultures where [[family name]]s are written after [[given name]]s, it is still desired to sort lists of names (as in telephone directories) by family name first. In this case, names need to be reordered to be sorted correctly. For example, Juan Hernandes and Brian O'Leary should be sorted as "Hernandes, Juan" and "O'Leary, Brian" even if they are not written this way. Capturing this rule in a computer collation algorithm is complex, and simple attempts will fail. For example, unless the algorithm has at its disposal an extensive list of family names, there is no way to decide if "Gillian Lucille van der Waal" is "van der Waal, Gillian Lucille", "Waal, Gillian Lucille van der", or even "Lucille van der Waal, Gillian".

Ordering by surname is frequently encountered in academic contexts. Within a single multi-author paper, ordering the authors alphabetically by surname, rather than by other methods such as reverse seniority or subjective degree of contribution to the paper, is seen as a way of "acknowledg[ing] similar contributions" or "avoid[ing] disharmony in collaborating groups".<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Teja|last1=Tscharntke|first2=Michael E|last2=Hochberg|first3=Tatyana A|last3=Rand|first4=Vincent H|last4=Resh|first5=Jochen|last5=Krauss|title=Author Sequence and Credit for Contributions in Multiauthored Publications|journal=PLOS Biol.|date=January 2007|volume=5|issue=1|pages=e18|pmid=17227141|doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050018|pmc=1769438 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The practice in certain fields of ordering [[citation]]s in bibliographies by the surnames of their authors has been found to create bias in favour of authors with surnames which appear earlier in the alphabet, while this effect does not appear in fields in which bibliographies are ordered chronologically.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://decisionslab.unl.edu/pubs/stevens_duque_2018_SM.pdf|first1=Jeffrey R.|last1=Stevens|first2=Juan F.|last2=Duque|title=Order Matters: Alphabetizing In-Text Citations Biases Citation Rates|journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review|year=2018|volume=26|issue=3|pages=1020–1026|doi=10.3758/s13423-018-1532-8|doi-access=free|pmid=30288671|s2cid=52922399|access-date=10 November 2018|archive-date=10 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110080311/https://decisionslab.unl.edu/pubs/stevens_duque_2018_SM.pdf|url-status=live}}
*{{lay source |author=Colleen Flaherty |title=The Case Against Alphabetical Naming of Authors |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/22/study-takes-aim-psychologys-practice-ordering-reference-lists-alphabetically|website=[[Inside Higher Ed]] |date=22 October 2018}}</ref>

====''The'' and other common words====
If a phrase begins with a very common word (such as "the", "a" or "an", called articles in grammar), that word is sometimes ignored or moved to the end of the phrase, but this is not always the case. For example, the book "[[The Shining (novel)|The Shining]]" might be treated as "Shining", or "Shining, The" and therefore before the book title "[[Summer of Sam]]". However, it may also be treated as simply "The Shining" and after "Summer of Sam". Similarly, "[[A Wrinkle in Time]]" might be treated as "Wrinkle in Time", "Wrinkle in Time, A", or "A Wrinkle in Time". All three alphabetization methods are fairly easy to create by algorithm, but many programs rely on simple [[lexicographic order]]ing instead.

====''Mac'' prefixes====
{{Main|Mac and Mc together}}
The prefixes ''M'' and ''Mc'' in Irish and Scottish surnames are abbreviations for ''Mac'' and are sometimes alphabetized as if the spelling is ''Mac'' in full. Thus ''McKinley'' might be listed before ''Mackintosh'' (as it would be if it had been spelled out as "MacKinley"). Since the advent of computer-sorted lists, this type of alphabetization is less frequently encountered, though it is still used in British telephone directories.

====''St'' prefix====
The prefix ''St'' or ''St.'' is an abbreviation of "Saint", and is traditionally alphabetized as if the spelling is ''Saint'' in full. Thus in a gazetteer ''St John's'' might be listed before ''Salem'' (as if it would be if it had been spelled out as "Saint John's"). Since the advent of computer-sorted lists, this type of alphabetization is less frequently encountered, though it is still sometimes used.

====Ligatures====
[[Typographic ligature|Ligatures]] (two or more letters merged into one symbol) which are not considered distinct letters, such as [[Æ]] and [[Œ]] in English, are typically collated as if the letters were separate—"æther" and "aether" would be ordered the same relative to all other words. This is true even when the ligature is not purely stylistic, such as in [[loanword]]s and brand names.

Special rules may need to be adopted to sort strings which vary only by whether two letters are joined by a ligature.