Most algorithms for alphabetical order give similar results, but there are a few edge cases, three are mentioned in this article.
For example:
Is that correct order? Or does the space character come before "p"? Or after "p"?
Also:
Is that correct order? What if there's no space, like "Article2"? Where can I find the exact definition of alphabetical order, that will clarify this and all other edge cases?
Writing "Article 02" should put it in the correct place, but is there a character other than "0" that will work while being easier for customers to read? Like a punctuation mark or something? (Assuming I'm working with someone else's database and I only have data entry permissions.)
This question is covered in the PHP case fairly well by considering the differences between sort() and natsort(). (Click to see the relevant documentation.)
The order is defined in the "collation" of the VARCHAR column. There's a default collation when this is not specified, but you can also a different one as needed.
XAMPP uses MariaDB as a database. The MariaDB - ORDER BY Clause reads:
...When string values are compared, they are compared as if by the STRCMP function. STRCMP ignores trailing whitespace and may normalize characters and ignore case, depending on the collation in use...