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In writing a paper my team and I need to explain that in a sublist L of, say, [1,2,3,...,100] (for instance L = [3,5,43,70]) the item with the lowest number has highest priority.

How would one best say this?

Examples where a larger number will denote a lesser priority or importance exist elsewhere:

  1. DEFCON1 is the top DEFCON level for instance
  2. "priority number 1" describes the highest level of priority
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    Is there something unacceptable about 'Here, the item with the lowest number has highest priority'? If you want a computerese version, this question is a far better fit on Computer Science.SE. Commented Jan 31, 2020 at 15:46
  • A common solution is to set the scene before beginning your discussion. For example, “In the following analysis the priority of a XXX is represented by a number in the range 1 to 100, where 1 indicates the highest priority, 2 the next highest, etc. and 100 the indicates the lowest priority.” Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 0:59
  • Thanks @orbitalaussie, that's pretty much the formulation I was hoping for. Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 4:02
  • It's common in some contexts to say "lower is better", often used when presenting things like computer benchmark results, vehicle mileage data, etc. Commented Jun 25, 2021 at 9:30

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There are a number of possible was to describe how a ranked list, like a list of priorities, is in reverse order. A common solution, in your context of a formal written paper, is to set the scene early in the paper with a sentence like this:

In the following analysis the priority of a XXX is represented by a number in the range 1 to 100, where 1 indicates the highest priority, 2 the next highest, etcetera; with 100 therefore indicating the lowest priority.

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