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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