Re: How to impose a numeric sort on negative numbers?

[Daniel Shahaf <d.s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Daniel Shahaf wrote on Tue, 07 Jul 2020 16:14 +0000:
> Daniel Shahaf wrote on Fri, 03 Jul 2020 22:23 +0000:
> > > The doc was just to record the fact that I didn't treat a "-" as "-0",
> > > just as a character "-".  That was a deliberate choice --- I'm
> > > assuming the usual case of a numeric sort will have at least one
> > > decimal digit in the part to be sorted and anything else is
> > > just a hyphen (and definitely not a dash).    
> > 
> > FWIW, I thought at first reading that that second sentence referred to
> > the `tt(-)' in the parameter expansion flags, not to the one in the
> > input data.  I'd never have expected "-" or "-foo" to be considered an
> > integer in the first place, just like "" and "foo" aren't considered integers.
> > 
> > Incidentally, should "+42" be sorted as an integer?  Right now it isn't.  
> 
> The following patch addresses the first issue and documents "+42" as a
> possible future extension.
> 
> diff --git a/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo b/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
> index 41ad967b2..21ecf9d6e 100644
> --- a/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
> +++ b/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
> @@ -1092,15 +1092,18 @@ Convert all letters in the result to lower case.

Equivalent wdiff for review:

diff --git a/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo b/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
index 41ad967b2..21ecf9d6e 100644
--- a/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
+++ b/Doc/Zsh/expn.yo
@@ -1092,15 +1092,18 @@ Convert all letters in the result to lower case.
item(tt(n))(
Sort decimal integers numerically; if the first differing
characters of two test strings are not digits, sorting
is lexical.  {+`tt(+)' and `tt(-)' are not treated specially; they are treated as+}
{+any other non-digit.+}  Integers with more initial zeroes
are sorted before those with fewer or none.  Hence the array [-`tt(foo1-]{+`tt(foo+24 foo1+} foo02
foo2 foo3 foo20 foo23)' is sorted into the order shown.
May be combined with `tt(i)' or `tt(O)'.
)
item(tt(-))(
As tt(n), but a leading minus sign indicates a negative decimal
integer.  A [-`tt(-)'-]{+leading minus sign+} not followed by an integer does not trigger
numeric sorting.
{+Note that `tt(+)' signs are not handled specially (this may change in the+}
{+future).+}
)
item(tt(o))(
Sort the resulting words in ascending order; if this appears on its