Sorting problem

hi all,
i am using postgres 7.3.2 .i am converitng a mssql database to postgres.
now i am facing a strange problem. sorting based on a varchar field is not working
as expected. the non alphanumeric characters are not sorting based on the ascii
value of them.

i have the following table structure..

create table accounts
(
AcNo varchar (10),
Name varchar(100),
balance numeric(19,4)
)

when i used the query select * from accounts order by acno. the result is not correct

suppose that the acno field contains values '###1' ,'###2' ,'##10' , '#100'
the sort order in postgres is
'###1'
'##10'
'#100'
'###2'
But i want the result as follows
'###1'
'###2'
'##10'
'#100'

that means the ascii value of # should be considered for sorting..
what is the problem. is it the behaviour of postgres.
do i need to change any configuration. i am using all default configurations
or is it a bug...?
the problem actually is of < & > operators for varchar.

in a simple comparison

select '###2' < '##10'

returns false but i need true.

is there any solution exist. even if i replaced # with any non alphanumeric
character the result is same..

pls help

jinu jose

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