Re: lc_collate issue

Hi Tom,

Thanks for answering,

I pretty much assumed that was the case (whatever library postgres is using for encoding is causing the "issue")

The[my] problem is,  it just seems like completely incorrect behavior..

The quickest and dirtiest examples I can do are that both python and mysql sort these 3 example strings (in utf8 encoding) the way I would expect (like a C locale)


python:

>>> x = [unicode("Somethang", "utf8"), unicode("-SOMETHING ELSE-", "utf8"), unicode("Something else", "utf8")]
>>> x
[u'Somethang', u'-SOMETHING ELSE-', u'Something else']
>>> x.sort()
>>> x
[u'-SOMETHING ELSE-', u'Somethang', u'Something else']


mysql:

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> SELECT x FROM (SELECT 'Something else' AS x UNION SELECT '-SOMETHING ELSE-' AS x UNION SELECT 'Somethang' AS x) y ORDER BY LOWER(x);
+------------------+
| x                |
+------------------+
| -SOMETHING ELSE- |
| Somethang        |
| Something else   |
+------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)


postgres:

SELECT x FROM (SELECT 'Something else' AS x UNION SELECT '-SOMETHING ELSE-' AS x UNION SELECT 'Somethang' AS x) y ORDER BY LOWER(x);
        x
------------------
 Somethang
 -SOMETHING ELSE-
 Something else
(3 rows)


And I bet oracle, firebird, sqlite, mssql, and everything else out there that does utf8 would return it in the "right" order (I'm willing to test that too if needed..)


If this is potentially a problem in postgres somewhere, point me in the general direction and I'm more than willing to fix it myself..

Thanks for your consideration..


-Cody





Tom Lane wrote:

Cody Pisto <cpisto@rvweb.com> writes: 

I'm looking for any kind of a reason (and potential workarounds), be it 
bug or otherwise, why the following two queries produce different 
results under a database encoding of UTF8 and lc_collate of en_US.UTF-8:   

That's just how it is in most non-C locales --- they use some weird
algorithm that's alleged to approximate what dictionary makers
traditionally do with phrases.  I don't recall the details but there's
something about multiple passes with spaces being ignored in earlier
passes.  You'll find that sort(1) sorts these lines the same way.

If you don't like it, use C locale, or put together your own locale
definition.  (No, I'm not sure how hard that is ...)
		regards, tom lane

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