From: "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwryder@...>
Date: 2008-10-13T09:02:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Sorting help

Ron Askew wrote:
> I the values are actually numeric, they should be stored as numerics,
> manipulated as numerics, and sorted as numerics.
> 
> So... the question is: WHY ARE THEY STRINGS?
> 

The data may be coming from another source that the OP has no control 
over.  In the language I do most of my programming in, Business Basic, 
everything is stored as a string, so 12.35 is stored as "12.25" instead 
of it's binary representation.
When I have this problem in Business Basic what I do is add leading 
zeros before storing the numbers in a file.  The file system in Business 
Basic allows me to store records in a file and automatically sorts them 
by the key value.  This means that you have to know in advance the size 
of the numbers.
What I would do is store the strings as ["10.1", "07.4", "10.9", 
"10.11", "10.10"] and this should sort properly.  In the second case I 
would store the number as "10.01.25".  Now if the numbers are something 
like TCP addresses this method probably won't work.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: binh@pigbaby.net [mailto:binh@pigbaby.net] 
> Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 7:24 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Sorting help
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I would like to request some helping with a sorting problem I have.
> 
> Given an array with values like this ["10.1", "7.4", "10.9", "10.11",
> "10.10"]
> 
> when I sort it i get something like ["10.1", "10.10", "10.11", "10.9",
> "7.4"]
> 
> What is the best way to sort such an array of strings?
> 
> What if the string was extended to "10.1.25".
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Binh