Alphabetical order

[FlamedToACrisp]

Which comes first: a gap, a hyphen or a letter?

What would you say is the correct alphabetical order for this list?

new hope, newly, new world, new format, new-found freedom

I would say letter, then hyphen, then gap (although I can’t think of a scenario when you’d need to sort anything in that way).

Trust me, I’m a qualified librarian

Newly
New-found freedom
New format
New hope
New world

⬆️ what @Doyoumind said ⬆️
That's the order I'd place them in.

The scenario is a vocabulary list of words and phrases in alphabetical order.

There isn’t a single answer!

A dictionary would generally alphabetise letter-by-letter, ignoring spaces and hyphens, so your list would be:

New format
New-found freedom
New hope
Newly
New world

Indexes vary depending on the type of publication and the house style.

Trust me, I’m a qualified librarian

But according to LC shelving "nothing comes before something", and (as I just looked up), a hyphenated word is treated as two words, so:

New format
New-found freedom
New hope
New world
Newly

But if were aren't shelving, I don't know.

I realize that I have no clue what cataloging system libraries in the UK use. I am in Canada.

And I further realize that I am talking about words, not call numbers. . For the first time this year in my job, I trained the student library workers to shelve both monographs and journals, which we shelve alphabetically by title.

Well, enough about me.....