While the MDEX Engine reads files in numeric-lexicographic order,
Forge reads them in simple lexicographic order. Keep this difference in mind
when naming files.
The following examples illustrate the ordering modes:
- Simple lexicographic order
is the order in which Forge reads partial update files. Using this order, Forge
compares the file names lexicographically. For example, when comparing
5.txt and
10.txt, “5” is compared with “1”. Based on this
comparison, Forge first reads
10.txt and then
5.txt.
- Numeric-lexicographic
order is the order in which the MDEX Engine reads partial update files. Using
this order, the MDEX Engine breaks a file name into a numeric prefix and a
non-numeric suffix, and compares the numeric prefixes numerically. It breaks
ties in numeric prefixes by proceeding to compare suffixes lexicographically.
For example, when comparing
10hello.txt,
010jello.txt, and
5z.txt, “10” is compared with “010” and “5”
numerically. This identifies
5z.txt as the file name that should be ordered
first. To resolve the tie between “10” and “010”, “h” is compared with “j”. As
a result,
5z.txt is processed first,
10hello.txt is processed next, and
010jello.txt is processed last.
