Bug #77701 for Sort-Naturally: Non-numeric word-character substrings (of mixed sort strings) are sorted incorrectly

Fri Jun 08 05:52:07 2012 nigel.winterbottom [...] fluke.com - Ticket created

Subject:	Non-numeric word-character substrings (of mixed sort strings) are sorted incorrectly
Date:	Fri, 8 Jun 2012 02:51:49 -0700
To:	"bug-Sort-Naturally [...] rt.cpan.org" <bug-Sort-Naturally [...] rt.cpan.org>
From:	"Winterbottom, Nigel" <nigel.winterbottom [...] fluke.com>

Distribution name and version : Sort-Naturally-1.03 Perl version : This is perl, v5.10.1 (*) built for x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi (with 40 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail) Operating System vendor and version : Linux Comark-Nigel 2.6.35-32-generic #67-Ubuntu SMP Mon Mar 5 19:39:49 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux My application is sorting Electronic Circuit References (Capacitors Resistors etc. e.g. C1, C11, CR1). The bug is easily demonstrated using a modification of the documented example. ( I added "fo12" to the list ) #BUG DEMONSTRATION @them = nsort(qw( foo12a foo12z foo13a foo 14 9x fo12 foo12 fooa foolio Foolio Foo12a )); print join(' ', @them), "\n"; PRINTS: 9x 14 foo fooa foolio Foolio foo12 foo12a Foo12a foo12z foo13a fo12 I think "fo12" should come before "foo12". #FIX Looking at the code I spotted a possible typo, in that the comment does not agree with the code. Having fixed that up I get the following output from the above example: 9x 14 fo12 foo foo12 foo12a Foo12a foo12z foo13a fooa foolio Foolio I am much happier with that result. #PATCH diff Sort/Naturally-1.03.pm Sort/Naturally.pm 72c72 < $x2 = $y2 if $x2 > $y2; --- Show quoted text

> $x2 = $y2 if $x2 < $y2;

-- Regards Nigel Winterbottom - Senior Engineer - Comark Instruments DDI: +44 (0)1462 444232 <http://www.comarkltd.com> Comark House, Bury Mead Road, Hitchin, Herts, UK. SG5 1RT

Thu Aug 21 13:51:02 2014 tsibley [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

On Fri Jun 08 02:52:07 2012, nigel.winterbottom@fluke.com wrote: Show quoted text

> Looking at the code I spotted a possible typo, in that the comment > does not agree with the code. Having fixed that up I get the following > output from the above example: > > 9x 14 fo12 foo foo12 foo12a Foo12a foo12z foo13a fooa foolio Foolio > > I am much happier with that result. > > #PATCH > diff Sort/Naturally-1.03.pm Sort/Naturally.pm > 72c72 > < $x2 = $y2 if $x2 > $y2; > ---

> > $x2 = $y2 if $x2 < $y2;

The comment you reference is: # Now make x2 the min length of the two: and the original code is indeed correctly described by the comment. $x2 is set to $y2 if and only if $x2 is greater than $y2, i.e. $y2 is less than $x2. If $x2 is already the smaller number, then it is left alone. If $x2 is the larger number, it it set to the smaller number in $y2. This makes $x2 the minimum. It's easy enough to try it out and see for yourself: $ perl -E '($x, $y) = @ARGV; $x = $y if $x > $y; say $x;' 7 5 5 $ perl -E '($x, $y) = @ARGV; $x = $y if $x > $y; say $x;' 5 7 5 Your desired sort order matches what would be output if numerics always came before alphabetics, instead of only coming before when at the start of the string. I do think there's a bug here, in that the sort order: 9x 14 foo fooa foolio Foolio foo12 foo12a Foo12a foo12z foo13a fo12 puts the shorter strings "fo12" and "foo12" after longer strings.

Thu Aug 21 13:51:02 2014 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Thu Aug 21 13:51:15 2014 tsibley [...] cpan.org - Requestor TSIBLEY added