How are named with symbols ordered in the Chat Room?

Question

I know, I know, extremely trivial, but I'm curious :/

I've noticed that names are typically ordered by the first letter, ABC order. However, some names with symbols, like -Mega Manectric- are above names that start with A, like Astrid Sol. Additionaly, my username goes under a name like ~Greyscale~ despite having the letter C after my symbol. So, how exactly is this ordered?

(Also, I'm talking about the Users online section)

Comments

Also just realized this happens for users listed under "Favorites," but the answer is most likely the same.

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Ooo! Good question! I'm curious to know that answer too.

Answer 1

Rather than ignoring symbols and sorting exclusively by alphabetical letters, the site sorts by characters, using an extended "alphabet" that includes not only letters, but numbers and symbols, as well. Certain symbols come before "A" in that alphabetical list, so names that start with certain symbols (like "~") precede any that start with an actual letter.

I don't know what the order of symbols in the full alphabet+symbol list is, though. It's probably determined by one of the basic, fundamental text-encoding systems on your computer, rather than anything hosted by the site.

Comments

https://www.asciitable.com/
A forum linked to this when I searched for the order. The red text is the characters as we know them.

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Are you sure they're in ASCII order? I thought they were in Unicode order.

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Ah that makes sense. Thanks.

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Honestly I didn't know they were different things 'till now. I think this is for unicode? https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tomw/java/unicode.html
It's so much longer.