Weird sorting order

Hi...

I have the following table:

CREATE TABLE test
(
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
val VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL
);

INSERT INTO test VALUES
(DEFAULT, '##34''),
(DEFAULT, '##32'),
(DEFAULT, '##31'),
(DEFAULT, '2ff'),
(DEFAULT, '##26'),
(DEFAULT, '2##33'),
(DEFAULT, '2##25'),
(DEFAULT, '2##24'),
(DEFAULT, '2##23'),
(DEFAULT, '211'),
(DEFAULT, '210'),
(DEFAULT, '203'),
(DEFAULT, '202'),
(DEFAULT, '201'),
(DEFAULT, '200');

Why is it that when running the query:

SELECT * FROM test ORDER BY val;

I get the following result?
id | val
----+-------
1 | 200
2 | 201
3 | 202
4 | 203
5 | 210
6 | 211
7 | 2##23
8 | 2##24
9 | 2##25
10 | 2##33
11 | ##26
12 | 2ff
13 | ##31
14 | ##32
15 | ##34
(15 rows)

Shouldn't value '2ff' be placed right after '211' but before '2##23'?

Tested on PostgreSQL 8.2, 8.4, Linux SuSE & Kubuntu.

Thank you!...

--
Robert Voinea <robert (dot) voinea (at) topex (dot) ro>
Software Developer
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