[GENERAL] locale-specific sort algorithms undocumented?

[John Gunther]

In the course of creating a new PG 7.4.3 server, I chose UTF-8 as my 
locale. I now find that sorting is very different with that setting: It 
appears, through trial and error, that all non-alphanumeric characters 
are completely ignored by ORDER BY. Thus, traditional tricks like 
prefixing a name with a leading space to force it to the head of an 
alphabetized list don't work anymore. This is unexpected and undesired, 
but curiously, I can't find a word written anywhere that defines the 
sort process for various locale settings. Can anyone point me to any 
documentation on this?

Second, can anyone offer any positive or negative implications of 
choosing a non-default locale (for English language databases)? I chose 
UTF because I perceive it as more of a standard encoding approach, but 
I'll have to reinit the server with a diffeent setting if I can't 
control its predilection to ignoring non-alphanumerics.

Thanks for sharing any insights.
John Gunther
Bucks vs Bytes Inc
Innovative, advanced web sites for all occasions.
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