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Since then, Microsoft has used a sorting algorithm in which file and folder names are sorted numerically in Windows/File Explorer. As you can see in Figure A, in the literal sorting system, files whose names include numbers are arranged by each digit in the filename. Since 1 comes before 2, 111 comes before 22.
If Categories column isn't showing, right-click anywhere within the File Explorer, select Sort by and select More from the list. Put a check mark in the Categories option under Details. Once you're done, you can already set it up and sort the folder by Categories.
To sort files in a different order, click one of the column headings in the file manager. For example, click Type to sort by file type. Click the column heading again to sort in the reverse order.
Here is some very short code (just the $ToNatural script block) that does the trick with a regular expression and a match evaluator in order to pad the numbers with spaces. Then we sort the input with padded numbers as usual and actually get natural order as a result.
$ToNatural = { [regex]::Replace($_, '\d+', { $args[0].Value.PadLeft(20) }) }
'----- test 1 ASCIIbetical order'
Get-Content list.txt | Sort-Object
'----- test 2 input with padded numbers'
Get-Content list.txt | %{ . $ToNatural }
'----- test 3 Natural order: sorted with padded numbers'
Get-Content list.txt | Sort-Object $ToNatural
Output:
----- test 1 ASCIIbetical order
1.txt
10.txt
3.txt
a10b1.txt
a1b1.txt
a2b1.txt
a2b11.txt
a2b2.txt
b1.txt
b10.txt
b2.txt
----- test 2 input with padded numbers
1.txt
10.txt
3.txt
a 10b 1.txt
a 1b 1.txt
a 2b 1.txt
a 2b 11.txt
a 2b 2.txt
b 1.txt
b 10.txt
b 2.txt
----- test 3 Natural order: sorted with padded numbers
1.txt
3.txt
10.txt
a1b1.txt
a2b1.txt
a2b2.txt
a2b11.txt
a10b1.txt
b1.txt
b2.txt
b10.txt
And finally we use this one-liner to sort files by names in natural order:
Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object { [regex]::Replace($_.Name, '\d+', { $args[0].Value.PadLeft(20) }) }
Output:
Directory: C:\TEMP\_110325_063356
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 1.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 3.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 10.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 a1b1.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 a2b1.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 a2b2.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 a2b11.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 a10b1.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 b1.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 b2.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:34 8 b10.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 04:54 99 list.txt
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:05 346 sort-natural.ps1
-a--- 2011-03-25 06:35 96 test.ps1
Allow me to copy and paste my answer from another question.
Powershell Sort-Object Name with numbers doesn't properly
Windows explorer is using a legacy API from shlwapi.dll which called StrCmpLogicalW, that's the reason seeing different sorting results.
I don't want to pad zeros, so wrote a script.
https://github.com/LarrysGIT/Powershell-Natural-sort
Since I am not a C# expert, pull requests are appreciated if it's not tidy.
Find following PowerShell script, it uses the same API.
function Sort-Naturally
{
PARAM(
[System.Collections.ArrayList]$Array,
[switch]$Descending
)
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @'
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace NaturalSort {
public static class NaturalSort
{
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public static extern int StrCmpLogicalW(string psz1, string psz2);
public static System.Collections.ArrayList Sort(System.Collections.ArrayList foo)
{
foo.Sort(new NaturalStringComparer());
return foo;
}
}
public class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer
{
public int Compare(object x, object y)
{
return NaturalSort.StrCmpLogicalW(x.ToString(), y.ToString());
}
}
}
'@
$Array.Sort((New-Object NaturalSort.NaturalStringComparer))
if($Descending)
{
$Array.Reverse()
}
return $Array
}
Find test results below.
PS> # Natural sort
PS> . .\NaturalSort.ps1
PS> Sort-Naturally -Array @('2', '1', '11')
1
2
11
PS> # If regular sort is being used
PS> @('2', '1', '11') | Sort-Object
1
11
2
PS> # Not good
PS> $t = ls .\testfiles\*.txt
PS> $t | Sort-Object
1.txt
10.txt
2.txt
PS> # Good
PS> Sort-Naturally -Array $t
1.txt
2.txt
10.txt
Translation from python to PowerShell works pretty well:
function sort-dir {
param($dir)
$toarray = {
@($_.BaseName -split '(\d+)' | ?{$_} |
% { if ([int]::TryParse($_,[ref]$null)) { [int]$_ } else { $_ } })
}
gci $dir | sort -Property $toarray
}
#try it
mkdir $env:TEMP\mytestsodir
1..10 + 100..105 | % { '' | Set-Content $env:TEMP\mytestsodir\$_.txt }
sort-dir $env:TEMP\mytestsodir
Remove-Item $env:TEMP\mytestsodir -Recurse
You can do it even better when you use Proxy function approach. You add -natur parameter to Sort-Object and you have pretty beautiful solution.
Update: First I was quite surprised that PowerShell handles comparing arrays in this way. After I tried to create test files ("a0", "a100", "a2") + 1..10 + 100..105 | % { '' | Set-Content $env:TEMP\mytestsodir\$_.txt }, it turned out that it doesn't work. So, I think there is no elegant solution like, because PowerShell is static under the covers, whereas python is dynamic.
I prefer @Larry Song's answer because it sorts exactly the way Windows Explorer does. I tried to simplify it a little to make it less intrusive.
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @"
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public static class NaturalSort
{
[DllImport("Shlwapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern int StrCmpLogicalW(string psz1, string psz2);
public static string[] Sort(string[] array)
{
System.Array.Sort(array, (psz1, psz2) => StrCmpLogicalW(psz1, psz2));
return array;
}
}
"@
Then you can use it like:
$array = ('1.jpg', '10.jpg', '2.jpg')
[NaturalSort]::Sort($array)
which outputs:
1.jpg
2.jpg
10.jpg
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