Alphabetize a comma- or newline-separated list of names, titles or items into A-Z order, with an option to ignore leading articles like 'the' or 'a'.
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When alphabetizing titles, standard convention (used in libraries, bibliographies and indexes) is to ignore a leading 'a', 'an', or 'the' when determining sort order, so 'The Great Gatsby' alphabetizes under 'G', not 'T'. This tool applies that convention automatically when the option is enabled, matching how titles are properly alphabetized in most style guides.
This tool is purpose-built for alphabetizing lists of names, titles or items, entered either comma-separated or one per line, with the leading-article convention built in. Our more general Text Sorter instead sorts arbitrary text lines, alphabetically or numerically, without this list- and title-specific behavior.
Alphabetizing 'The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick' with 'Ignore Leading Articles' enabled gives 'The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, A Tale of Two Cities', sorted by 'Great Gatsby' (G), 'Moby Dick' (M), and 'Tale of Two Cities' (T), not by their literal first letters. With that option disabled instead, the same three titles would sort by their literal first characters: 'A Tale of Two Cities' (A), 'Moby Dick' (M), 'The Great Gatsby' (T).
Leaving 'Ignore Leading Articles' enabled when alphabetizing something that isn't a title, like a list of plain names or product SKUs, this convention is specifically for titles, applying it to unrelated lists can produce an unexpected sort order.
Choosing the wrong list format (comma-separated vs one per line) for the actual input, mismatching the delimiter setting to the input format causes the entire list to be read as a single item instead of being split correctly.
Assuming this handles articles anywhere in the title, only a leading 'a', 'an', or 'the' is recognized and ignored, an article appearing mid-title (like 'Return of the King') is left in place and still counted for sorting.
Yes, choose 'Comma-Separated' as the list format and the tool will split your list on commas instead of line breaks.
It's the standard convention for alphabetizing titles, like book titles, movie titles, or article headlines, so that 'The Great Gatsby' and 'A Tale of Two Cities' sort under 'G' and 'T' rather than clustering under 'A' and 'T' for their articles.
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