Ordering

TinyAPL has a total array ordering, which means all arrays can be compared, for functions like Grade.

The ordering is as follows:

• of two arrays with different shape, the smallest is the one with the lexicographically smallest shape;
• of two arrays with the same shape, the elements are compared in ravel order:
  • numbers are smaller than characters or boxes;
  • characters are larger than numbers and smaller than boxes;
  • boxes are larger than numbers and characters;
  • two numbers are compared first by their real part and then their imaginary part;
  • two characters are compared by Unicode codepoint;
  • two boxes are compared by comparing their contained arrays, as defined here.