question about usage

[Andrew Warren]

Deirdre Reagan wrote:

> I get that 123ABC consist of alphanumerical characters.
> 
> However, does 123 consist of numerical characters?  I would say it
> consists of numbers. 
> 
> Does ABC consist of alpha characters?  I would say it consists of
> letters. 
> 
> ....
>  
> Here's what I'm talking about:
> 
> "Move the part numbers that begin with a numerical character to the
end
> of the list after the part numbers that begin with an alpha
character."

Deirdre:

I'd use the well-known word "numerals" rather than the awkward phrase
"numerical characters", and I agree with you that "letters" is better
than "alpha characters".

If your example sentence is trying to describe the desired sort order
for part numbers, you could change it to something like "when sorting
part numbers, numerals 0-9 follow letters A-Z," or "numerals are sorted
after letters (e.g., part number 000000 follows part number ZZZZZZ)," or
"the sort order is A through Z, then 0 through 9," or just "sort
numerals after letters."

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren at synaptics.com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA