Memory Alpha:Category sort keys

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This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

In the category tree, it is important to use a sort key when tagging an article with a category. This aids in the ordering of the articles when they are viewed from the category they are suggested to be placed into.

Category sort keys are entered into the "[[Category:" tag by means of a piped link. A few different general sorting rules are applied here, but be careful – individual categories may have special rules, dependant of the topic of the article – they will be listed on individual talk pages if they apply. Otherwise, the following situations are standard:

Surnames	For species with definitive first and last name structures, such as Humans or Cardassians, use the following form to alphabetize them by last name: in S.G. Dukat [[Category:Cardassians|Dukat, S.G.]] in Elim Garak [[Category:Cardassians|Garak, Elim]] Remember it would be inappropriate to sort by the last name only – categorizing John Q. Phillips as [[Category:Humans|Phillips]] would be incorrect because omitting the first name will ruin the sort if there are more than one person. Please do not assume that just because there aren't two people by that name now, there won't be later – it would be very troublesome of you categorized everyone's last names without the first, whether they are the only Phillips or not.	This will alphabetize the results in the category: S.G. Dukat Elim Garak
Roman numerals	For items listed with Roman numerals, the sort key should convert them to digits with an appropriate number of leading zeroes. For example, planets are numbered with two digit places: in Alpha IX [[Category:Planets|Alpha 09]]	If you didn't add the sort key, the following problem would occur: Alpha IV (04) Alpha IX (09) Alpha V (05) Alpha X (10)
Numerical	For items listed with numbers, leading zeros need to be added in order to maintain the sort. For example, sectors are numbered with six digit places – five for the maximum number of digits plus one leading zero to list all articles under the same heading: in Sector 30 [[Category:Sectors|000030]]	If you didn't add the sort key, the following problem would occur: Sector 29999 Sector 30 Sector 30000
Titles	For titles of episodes or other works, alphabetization never includes "The" or "A" occurring at the beginning of the title: in "The Squire of Gothos" [[Category:Episodes|Squire of Gothos, The]] in "A Taste of Armageddon" [[Category:Episodes|Taste of Armageddon, A]]	The episodes sort correctly: "Spock's Brain" "The Squire of Gothos" "A Taste of Armageddon" "That Which Survives"

Sort keys can, of course, be omitted if the articles are ready to be alphabetized as they were originally titled.