Why do numeric string comparisons give unexpected results?

Question

\'10:\' < \'1:\'
# => true

Can someone explain me why the result in the above example is true? If I just compare \'1:\' and \'2:\' I get the

Answer 1

The first character of each of your two strings are the same. And as Dave said in the comments, the second character of the first, '0', is less than ':', so the first string is less than the second.