Sorting compound names

[Erik Mueller-Harder]

Hi, Jon --

On Sep 20, 2004, at 08:38, jda wrote:

> Even making it more difficult with a method, there may be dozens of 
> prefixes that need to be ignored (van, von, de, etc.).

I don't wish to belabor the point -- and I promise not to write further 
on the topic unless you specifically ask.  I'm writing again only 
because I'm not sure I communicated my point clearly the first time.

> "This is one of these anglocentric idiosyncrasies which horrify 
> Germans, Dutch, Swedes and so on."

Do all of your authors' names really follow the same sorting rules?  
There are so very many different -- conflicting! -- rules and customs:  
sometimes varying by language, sometimes by country, by region, or by 
culture.  The list I sent the other day was supposed to show the 
inconsistencies inherent in the preferences of different peoples, not 
an Anglo predilection for sorting by "whole" last names.

For example, I'm sure you saw that some of the "vans" were sorted under 
"V", such as

     - Van Devanter, Willis
     - Van Rensselaer, Stephen

Yes, they're both Americans, and their last names are sorted under 
"van" -- that's where you'd find them in a biographical dictionary, 
too.  *But* the list also included

     - Beethoven, Ludwig van
     - Braun, Wernher von

properly sorted under "B."

I wasn't trying to argue that you should always sort by the whole last 
name -- rather, that rules and conventions vary incredibly, and that 
there is no algorithm you could use to ensure that authors are 
alphabetized in the manner that they would wish.

The db design that would give you the most flexibility for dealing with 
this inconsistency is to have an author-name-sort non-method field.  
Perhaps you could initially populate it using rules that you deem 
appropriate for the majority of your (Dutch & German?) authors, but 
then you could easily override the sorting order on a case-by-case 
basis.

Whatever you decide, good luck with your project!

-- Erik