"Help me alphabetize, please" Topic

Which would be first?

Kiowa

Kiowa Apache

Thanks, all!

Kiowa.

There are online alphabetizing aids, but one easy way to solve alphabetizing problems is to type your list in Word and then click the A-Z button in the toolbar.

As an aside, lowercase letters (usually) take precedence over uppercase letters; spaces (usually) take precedence over letters; and letters (usually) take precedence over special symbols like dashes. So, the following list is correctly alphabetized:

kiowa
Kiowa
Kiowa apache
Kiowa Apache
Kiowaapache
KiowaApache
Kiowa-apache
Kiowa-Apache

I say "usually" because some companies and programs might have their own reasons for alphabetizing things differently.

THANK YOU, jpattern2! I appreciate your help!

Kiowa and Apache are always proper nouns, even if used as modifiers, and thus would always begin with an initial capital letter; they also would not be hyphenated, nor combined as a single word.

In our library, we would shelve a title of Kiowa as a lone word before Kiowa Apache, which itself would also be before Kiowa's Apache. (Though I coulldn't tell you if Kiowa's Apache would come before or after Kiowas' Apache).

Of course, for us, all the above presumes the same call number/letter and author. (And half the time we just decide "close enough" and put the book on the shelf. Of course, in fiction we also shelve by series order, if we know it, which plays holy havock with alphabetizing by title…)

What I learned in library school "nothing comes before something"

'Space' is a letter before A

Short words come before long ones that start with the short ones

AAA
AAB
AABBB
AABCCC
AABCCC DDD
AABCCCDDDD