Alphanumeric

[Elgin Clock]

I had a conversation at work recently as to how to file some documents.

The person I was talking to brought up the term Alphanumeric, and asked me what I think would be filed first in a system like that.

I knew I was bested by that question, and he meant Letters (Alpha coming first in the term) but reverted back to computer knowledge and said numbers (half jokingly).

What's up with the word Alphanumeric stating in common sense terminology, that Letters should come before Numbers in an organizational system, but Computer programs (like excel, or windows explorer) defaulting to organize file names or fields with numbers first when you sort?

What's up with that?

[Molten]

Not quite sure. I usually just name stuff whatever seems to fit. Then, I use the Ctrl+F Function to actually find it. I am not that organized, but hopefully I will have a secretary for that. (JK)

[Mark McLeod]

Probably from the early days of computer based sorting. On the computer side of things, the ASCII representation of alphanumeric characters lists the numerals 0 through 9 before the alphabet. So in a strict numeric sense (from a computer's point of view) a program will sort numbers first.
If EBCDIC had won out over ASCII it'd be the other way around.