title: Checking strings and determine which is alphabetically smaller
body: <p>How do I perform the comparison between two strings to determine which is <strong>alphabetically smaller</strong>?</p>
  
  <p>Example, if I have strings <code>'aberr'</code> and <code>'aftward'</code> how do I determine which is <strong>alphabetically smaller</strong>? Another example would be <code>'beast'</code> and <code>'best'</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Do I have to make the strings into it's ascii representation such as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ascii a + ascii b + ascii e...
  </code></pre>