Lexicographic sorting

[JayK]

Strings are sorted lexicographically, so could someone please explain why
"A" < "a"
is false, but
"Am" < "aMc"
is true?
Thanks

[technocrat]

# Raw vectors should not really be considered to have an order, but the numeric order of the byte representation is used.

u <- "a"
(v <- charToRaw(u))
#> [1] 61
is.vector(u)
#> [1] TRUE

w <- "A"
(z <- charToRaw(w))
#> [1] 41
is.vector(z) 
#> [1] TRUE

x <- "aMc"
(y <- charToRaw(x))
#> [1] 61 4d 63
is.vector(y) 
#> [1] TRUE

[JayK]

Then why is "A" < "a" false? Isn't 41 < 61??

[technocrat]

Yeah, it's weird until sussing byte order

[JayK]

If you compare lex'lly, you compare character by character, so both should be true of both false, what's byte order have to do with this?

[technocrat]

Raw vectors should not really be considered to have an order, but the numeric order of the byte representation is used.

See docs for base::comparison