"Jimmy Thrasher" <jimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > As I understand it, postgresql sorts strings roughly like strcmp does: character by character based on encoding value. Only if you're using C locale. Other locales such as en_US have completely different rules, which most hackers tend to find pretty unintelligible and inconsistent :-(. In your example, I think the first-pass sort is on just the letters, and only if those are the same will it consider the punctuation. regards, tom lane