Sort Order for City, State, Country

[Rich S]

(I hope this is the correct forum for this question since there isn't a Sorting section.)

I have three fields, each with its own sorting script: City, State and Country. Is there a standardized or "best practice" way of sorting these guys?

For example, if a user selects City, should the sort order be City / State / Country?

...if State, should the sort order be State / City / Country?

...if Country, should the sort order be Country / State / City?

...or, just don't have any subordinate sorts at all? If the user selects City that's the only field that gets sorted--State and Country go unsorted? To me, it'd be beneficial to have the other two fields sorted as well but it just may be me and not standard practice.

Decisions, decisions ... TIA for your input!

Rich

[comment]

I think it depends on two things:

1. What is each record?

2. Why do I want to view them in particular order?

[Rich S]

1. Each record has basic demographic information about a tourist site, address, phone, e-mail, etc.

2. If the user wants to plan a trip, he or she may want to group sites by city or state. So, if you're planning a trip to lush, exotic, tropical Idaho, you may want to sort by city to visit places in, say, Boise and Coeur d'Alene. (Country comes into play since it'll be a solution that'll include Canadian and American sites.)

[comment]

If I am planning to visit Idaho, wouldn't I want to find records in Idaho, USA first? If I can't do that, I suppose I would want the 'by city' sort order to be City/Country/State - so that all Canadian cities named Boise are grouped above my line of sight. But I don't think there are any established rules here.

[Rich S]

A good pearl of wisdom--think Find instead of Sort, first. Thanks!