31 Ordering, sorting, and arranging
“When Laura was here I had the records arranged alphabetically; before that I had them filed in chronological order. . . Tonight, though I fancy something different, so I try to remember the order I bought them in:”
Ordering items means using a numeric or lexicographic criterion to rank them and having a rule for handling ties. Sorting items places them in groups and may include ordering. Arranging items includes ordering and sorting, but may involve using a subjective criterion. Flowers could be ordered by height or sorted by colour. They might be arranged in quite different ways, depending on how well they then look to the person arranging them.