To produce an alphanumeric list, printable characters are sorted according to a collating sequence. Printable characters include letters possibly with accents, numbers, punctuation characters, and other symbols such as an * (asterisk) or & (ampersand). The collating sequence defines the value and position of a character relative to the other characters.
Many applications make frequent use of collating sequences to produce alphanumeric lists. Examples of alphanumeric lists include the following: