[mb-users] Sortingorder Dutch tussenvoegsel

[Kuno Woudt]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 09:10:35AM +0200, Alan Pepelko wrote:
> 2008/4/21, Sander van Zoest <sander at vanzoest.com>:
> >
> Sorry, but I just can't understand the point of sorting order "Last name,
> tussenvoegsel, First name". For the purpose of sorting is just useless and
> pointless, IMO. 

The main advantange is that it keeps family members together, as you
would expect when people have identical family names.

This has been explained earlier in the thread, but I can re-iterate:

If you have two families, e.g. 'Bruin' en 'De Bruin':

Bruin consisting of father, Jan Bruin, with two kids Wytze Bruin 
and Baukje Bruin.

And the De Bruin family consisting of mother Akke de Bruin and her
kids Rinske de Bruin and Hilbert de Bruin.

If you disregard the 'tussenvoegsel', they're all jumbled up:

Bruin, Akke de
Bruin, Baukje
Bruin, Hilbert de
Bruin, Jan
Bruin, Rinske de
Bruin, Wytze

Which is not what you expect when sorting on family names.  If you
take the tussenvoegsel into account you get:

Bruin, , Baukje
Bruin, , Jan
Bruin, , Wytze
Bruin, de, Akke
Bruin, de, Hilbert
Bruin, de, Rinske

That's how dutch names should be sorted.

Ofcourse, musicbrainz probably sorts it like this right now:

Bruin, Baukje
Bruin, de, Akke
Bruin, de, Hilbert
Bruin, de, Rinske
Bruin, Jan
Bruin, Wytze

Which is not correct either :)

-- kuno / warp.