User:Stemonitis/Testing ground
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Ordering names in a category
It is possible to change the default order in which the articles in a Category are displayed on the Category: page. For general instructions and conventions about this, see Wikipedia:Categorization#Category sorting. Note that there are two techniques for defining a sort order different from the sort order that would result from the page name:
- Adding {{DEFAULTSORT:<category sort key>}} in the article sets the category sort key for all categories listed after it in that article;
- Per listed category, [[Category:Type X people|<category sort key>]]
The sort key should mirror the article's title as closely as possible, while omitting disambiguating terms. Some exceptions are made, however, to force correct collation:
- Sort by surname
If the article is titled "Forename Surname", the category should be added to the article as [[Category:Type X people|Surname, Forename]] (or: {{DEFAULTSORT:Surname, Forename}}) so that it will be sorted by surname.
- Note that, for example, Chinese names are generally written with the family name first: Mao Zedong is sorted [[Category:1976 deaths|Mao, Zedong]].
- People with multiple-word last names are usually sorted by the entire last name in English, and not (for example) according to the Dutch system which puts some words like "van", "vanden", "van der" after the rest of the last name. Example: (Dutch)[[Categorie:Nederlands voetballer|Basten van Marco]];
[[Category:A.C. Milan players|Basten, Marco van]]→ [[Category:A.C. Milan players|Van Basten, Marco]] - Note that some people are typically called this way in English, for example, for Beethoven, use [[Category:Classical era composers|Beethoven, Ludwig Van]]; similarly, for Montesquieu, use [[Category:Enlightenment philosophers|Montesquieu, Charles De Secondat, Baron De]].
- Beware of middle names which look like surnames: e.g. Peter Maxwell Davies (surname: "Davies"), Ricky Van Shelton (surname: "Shelton") and conversely parts of a surname which look like middle names, e.g. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (surname: "Mies van der Rohe").
- Sometimes a given name is combined with neither a surname, nor with a peerage title; it is preferable to sort on the first name in these cases. Example: for Augustine of Hippo, use [[Category:Christian philosophers|Augustine of Hippo]] or simply [[Category:Christian philosophers]]
- Nobility
- British peers are sorted by name of the title rather than surname, e.g. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury is alphabetized under "Salisbury", not "Gascoyne-Cecil" or "Cecil": [[Category:1830 births|Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of]].
- Some peers are almost invariably known by some name other than their peerage (which will not, in such cases, appear in the article title); for example, Frederick North, Lord North (who was 2nd Earl of Guilford) or Anthony Eden (who was 1st Earl of Avon). This should be followed for most categories, sorting them under North,... and Eden,...; but categories directly relating to the peerage should still sort them under it. [[Category:Earls in the Peerage of Great Britain|Guilford]] and |Avon]], respectively.
- Similarly, for monarchs with their monarchical name as article name: e.g. on the Louis IX of France page, use [[Category:Saints]] (without category sort key), but also: [[Category:French monarchs|Louis 09]] (in this case the ordinal number is converted to an Arabic numeral with a leading zero to get up to XVIII "Louis" kings in the right order in the French Monarchs category).
- Other exceptions
- Get rid of epithets: e.g. "Saint" in Saint Alban: [[Category:Saints|Alban]].
- Suffixes to names, such as "Jr." or "III", should be placed at the end of the sort key, rather than with the surname: Robert J. Smith II sorts as [[Category:New Jersey politicians|Smith, Robert J., II]], not [[Category:New Jersey politicians|Smith II, Robert J.]].
- Punctuation, such as apostrophes and colons (but not hyphens) should be removed, and accented letters and ligatures should be replaced by their unaccented or separated counterparts.
- The first letter of each word should be in upper case, and all subsequent letters should be in lower case, regardless of the correct spelling of the name. Thus, Lena D'Água sorts as [[Category:Portuguese female singers|Dagua, Lena]].
Without these last alterations, all punctuation marks and internal capital letters would be sorted before A, and all accented characters and ligatures would sort after Z.
