A string is encoded in memory as an array of numbers so in this case "ordinal" means that it simply compares the two arrays number by number. A non-ordinal str

A string is encoded in memory as an array of numbers so in this case "ordinal" means that it simply compares the two arrays number by number. A non-ordinal string comparison may take into account other things such as iterating by actual characters and comparing them in language and culture-aware ways. This is useful for ordering things by name when showing a list to users.