Sorting Collections

An alphabetical list seems predictable until several entries have the same name. Suppose a customer browses reading lists in name order and then loads another page. Several lists share a name, and two have the same creation timestamp. Unless the API defines how to break those ties, the order can shift even when none of the lists changes.

Sorting is part of a collection's public contract.

This chapter explains default order, client-selected sort keys, tie-breakers, value comparison, validation, pagination, and execution cost using a fictional bookstore API over HTTPS.