iPod Curious sorting

[Howard Brazee]

Sorting by name, I notice the following order:
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher
16 Candles
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) [Live]
A-O-L
A Day in the Life

So apparently "The" is ignored, but "A" isn't ignored in this sort.


Why is this?

 

[siurpeeman]

i think "the" is ignored, because you have bands like the beatles, the cure, the smashing pumpkins, etc. it makes sense to ignore the "the" instead of having a bunch of bands in the "t" section that don't belong. and i think they made apply to all the fields and not just artist/band.

 

[glennp]

So apparently "The" is ignored, but "A" isn't ignored in this sort.

Why is this?

<grammar lesson>

When sorting, you typically omit articles (e.g., the word "the") from the beginning of phrases. The word "the" is the only definite article of the English language. "A" and "an" are not always articles (e.g., "a dollar a day") so there is no simple way to distinguish when they should be omitted, hence, they are not ignored.

</grammar lesson>