https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58000
Priority: medium
Bug ID: 58000
Assignee: [email protected]
Summary: Inconsistent alphabetization between Base and other
apps
Severity: normal
Classification: Unclassified
OS: Windows (All)
Reporter: [email protected]
Hardware: Other
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Version: 3.6.3.2 release
Component: Database
Product: LibreOffice
Created attachment 71158
--> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=71158&action=edit
Database file containing a table with a list of titles
Base alphabetizes a list of text items in a way that is inconsistent with the
behavior of Writer and Calc (and also inconsistent with Microsoft Word and
Excel). The attached file (Alphabetical Order.odb) illustrates this.
The database contains a table, List, with a single column of hymn titles, all
of which begin with I. When the table is displayed in Base, either by Opening
it from the table view or by a query, and then sorted on the Name column (by
clicking the "Sort Ascending" button on the toolbar), the list is sorted in a
way that uses commas and apostrophes but disregards spaces. For example, "I,
the Lord", "I'm Gonna" and "I've Got" come before any other title, and "If You"
comes between "I Am" and "I Greet". This is not the order that most people
would expect when alphabetizing a list of titles.
For the record, the same order is produced by the SQL statement
Select "Name" from "List" order by "Name"
When the database table is copied into a Calc spreadsheet and sorted there, the
order is different, with spaces, apostrophes, and commas treated as sorting
characters. The most obvious result is that all titles beginning with the
single word "I" appear first in the list. That's what I would expect.
The sorting done by MS Excel and Word is similar to Calc, but apostrophes are
disregarded.
The Chicago Manual of Style devotes part of chapter 16 to alphabetizing,
describing the two main methods as letter-by-letter (like Base) and
word-by-word (like Calc).
The attached file Alphabetical Order Comparison.ods shows the result of sorting
the same list of titles in Base, Calc, and MS Excel. (Writer is identical to
Calc on this test, and Word is identical to Excel.) In my opinion, the order
produced by Base is weird for a list of titles, although it may be appropriate
for other text. (For a column containing only single words, it makes no
difference.) In any event, I would prefer to see consistency among the
LibreOffice apps, and ideally would like to be able to control the sorting
method (word-by-word or letter-by-letter, at least) with a program option.
(Note: my installation of LibreOffice uses the default database, presumably
HSQL. I don't know how to verify that that's the case.)
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