# Easiest way to order similar items in results/ActiveRecord

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/easiest-way-to-order-similar-items-in-results-activerecord/91702>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 11, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/easiest-way-to-order-similar-items-in-results-activerecord/91702 "2007-04-11T18:59:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![glenn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/4bbf92/32.png) [@glenn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/glenn)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/easiest-way-to-order-similar-items-in-results-activerecord/91702/1 "2007-04-11T18:59:22Z")

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Hopefully this will be as easy to achieve as most other things in  
rails…

How could I order a resultset so that the following order would occur:

Quickstart guid to Ruby on Rails  
Ruby on Rails Cookbook  
The Ruby on Rails Cookbook  
Some other Ruby book

So basically I want words like “the” or “a” to be ignored. Would I  
have to strip these leading words out when inputting into the DB and  
sort on this field? Or is there an easier way?