Why is \'one\' Greater Than \'four\' in JavaScript String Comparison?

Understanding String Comparison in JavaScript

String comparison in JavaScript is an intriguing aspect of the language that can lead to unexpected results. The question arises: why is "one" considered greater than "four" when comparing strings?

To understand this, we need to delve into the mechanism of string comparison in JavaScript. Unlike other programming languages, JavaScript utilizes a lexicographical sorting algorithm for string comparison.

Lexicographical sorting compares two strings character by character, assigning a numerical value to each character. The string with the higher numerical value is considered larger. In the case of "one" and "four", the numerical values of each character are as follows:

Character | "one" | "four"
---------|-------|--------
o         | 111   | 102
n         | 110   | 111
e         | 101   | 114
1         |  49   |  52

As you can see, the "1" in "four" has a higher numerical value than the "e" in "one". In lexicographical sorting, this places "four" at a later position in the alphabetical ordering, resulting in "four" being considered smaller than "one".

It's important to note that lexicographical sorting is case-sensitive. If the strings had been written as "One" and "Four", the comparison would have been different, with "One" being considered larger than "Four".

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