A slightly disturbing problem about items

[Rob Cozens]

Ken, et al,

>The
>reason you get two different values is that in your first example, the list
>if items is "1,2,3,4,5," and ends in the item delimiter (,). Since there is
>nothing that follows the item delimiter, it is ignored, and returns 5 items.
>The second example gives you ",1,2,3,4,5" so there are 6 items (nothing's
>ignored).

 From my perspective, the focus of JB's issue is not the presence or 
absence of a terminating comma, but if (the number of items of 
"1,2,3,4,5,") is 5, why does (sort items of "1,2,3,4,5," ascending numeric) 
sort 6 values instead of 5?

It appears the sort command's definition of an item is different than the 
"number of items of" syntax.

Comments?

Rob Cozens, Staff Conservator
Mendonoma Marine Life Conservancy

"It is contrary to human welfare to contribute in any way...
  to the degradation of the sea's capacity to support life."

  -- Walter Hickel, U. S. Secretary of the Interior, 1971
     in "From Abundance to Scarcity" by Michael L. Weber