Need Help with this question please ^_^?

Question

There was this question for a MEDICAL RECORDS CLERK POSITION, please read.
The question:
Our medical record numbers are composed of 3 sets the first set is composed of 2 or 3 numbers, the second set is composed of 2 numbers and the 3rd is also composed of 2 numbers.
These are examples of our medical record numbers 812-23-13, 12-24-34 and 12-25-34. If arrange in numerical order it would look like this:
1.) 812-23-13
2.) 12-24-34
3.) 12-25-34
Please arrange the following numbers in numerical orders.
87-42-12, 199-12-05, 45-16-05, 99-98-60, 98-17-04, 87-12-12, 998-97-03
Please let me know what your answer would be. Because I honestly got confused with this part and I want to make sure If I did it correctly. Please explain I would really appreciate it, thankyou.

Answer 1

From what i understand from the examples arrangement you gave, the 3rd sets number are taken as a main refferal code if i can say it this way... so to my way of understanding the numerical orders way of arrangement, it will be like below:-

1)998-97-03
2) 98-17-04
3)199-12-05
4) 45-16-05
5) 87-12-12
6) 87-42-12
7) 99-98-60

So...this is what i got....

Answer 2

This is scary.

I'd say they cheated when they didn't tell you why 12 would sort after 812.

If this was a zero-suppressed number, 12 should sort before 812 since 0 is less than 8. If this is a "null" the company can choose to sort the nulls after all 3 digit numbers. If they are simply ignoring the first digit, it would yet another order.

I'm guessing either nulls last:
199-12-05 is first
998-97-03 is second
_45-16-05
_87-12-12
_87-42-12
_98-17-04
_99-98-60

or If the first digit is ignored :
_45-16-05
_87-12-12
_87-42-12
_98-17-04
998-97-03
199-12-05
_99-98-60

Answer 3

If you were to sort these as a computer might, on three sort keys, in ascending order, they should look like this.
45-16-05
87-12-12,
87-42-12,
98-17-04
99-98-60,
199-12-05,
998-97-03