Sort numbers then strings C#

Question

I want to this list

A
B
C
111
11
123
1
42
5

To be sorted

1
5
11
42
111
123
A
B
C

By default, it sorts numbers like strings (So, it goes 1,11,111,123,42,5), But I want to sort numbers like numbers, and than strings that are not numbers.

Is there clean solution to sort it like above?

It is a list of objects, and object has several properties, one of which is a this string.

Answer 1

This will work for most use cases, but may have odd results if the string starts with control characters, string like "\\tabc" will come before the integers:

list.OrderBy(x=>int.TryParse(x, out var dummy) ? dummy.ToString("D10") : x);

or for versions of C# prior to 7:

list.OrderBy(x=> { int dummy; return int.TryParse(x, out dummy) ? dummy.ToString("D10") : x;} );

Answer 2

I wrote this IComparer implementation a few months back to handle something like this. I think it will do what you want by default, though it is built to handle more complex cases where number/letter groups are separated by delimiters that also need to be sorted atomically. You should be able to adjust it to your needs.

public class SemanticComparer : IComparer<string>
{
    private static Regex _splitter = new Regex("\\W+");

    public int Compare(string x, string y)
    {
        string[] partsX = _splitter.Split(x);
        string[] partsY = _splitter.Split(y);

        int shortest = Math.Min(partsX.Length, partsY.Length);

        for (int index = 0; index < shortest; index++)
        {
            int intX, intY;
            int result;

            if (int.TryParse(partsX[index], out intX) && int.TryParse(partsY[index], out intY))
            {
                result = intX.CompareTo(intY);
            }
            else
            {
                result = string.Compare(partsX[index], partsY[index], StringComparison.Ordinal);
            }

            if (result != 0)
            {
                return result;
            }
        }

        return 0;
    }
}

You can sort your list with it like this:

MyList.Sort(new SemanticComparer());

Answer 3

What you want is called Natural sort .

I once wrote some code for that:

public static class NaturalCompare
{
    public static int Compare(string first, string second, StringComparison comparison = StringComparison.Ordinal)
    {
        if (string.Compare(first, second, comparison) == 0)
        {
            return 0;
        }

        if (first == null)
        {
            return -1;
        }

        if (second == null)
        {
            return 1;
        }

        DateTime d1, d2;

        if (DateTime.TryParse(first, out d1) && DateTime.TryParse(second, out d2))
        {
            return d1.CompareTo(d2);
        }

        var pos1 = 0;
        var pos2 = 0;

        int result;
        do
        {
            bool isNum1, isNum2;

            var part1 = GetNext(first, ref pos1, out isNum1);
            var part2 = GetNext(second, ref pos2, out isNum2);

            if (isNum1 && isNum2)
            {
                result = long.Parse(part1).CompareTo(long.Parse(part2));
            }
            else
            {
                result = String.Compare(part1, part2, comparison);
            }
        } while (result == 0 && pos1 < first.Length && pos2 < second.Length);

        return result;
    }

    public static int CompareToNatural(this string first, string second, StringComparison comparison = StringComparison.Ordinal)
    {
        return Compare(first, second, comparison);
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> OrderByNatural<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, string> keySelector)
    {
        return source.OrderBy(keySelector, new NatComparer());
    }

    public static IOrderedEnumerable<TSource> OrderByNaturalDescending<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, string> keySelector)
    {
        return source.OrderByDescending(keySelector, new NatComparer());
    }

    private sealed class NatComparer : IComparer<string>
    {
        public int Compare(string x, string y)
        {
            return NaturalCompare.Compare(x, y);
        }
    }

    private static string GetNext(string s, ref int index, out bool isNumber)
    {
        if (index >= s.Length)
        {
            isNumber = false;
            return "";
        }

        isNumber = char.IsDigit(s[index]);

        var start = index;
        while (index < s.Length && char.IsDigit(s[index]) == isNumber)
        {
            index++;
        }
        return s.Substring(start, index - start);
    }
}

Answer 4

You could loop through all the values once, and use int.TryParse to separate them into two separate lists: one for the values where int.TryParse returned true (aka the numbers), and another list for the ones where it returned false (the non-numbers). Then you could sort these two lists separately, and concatenate their sorted results together at the end.

Answer 5

I haven't tested this code for performance, but you can solve this with a Comparer

public class ArrayItemComparer : IComparer<string>
{
    public int Compare(string x, string y)
    {
        int xInt = 0, yInt = 0;

        bool parseX = int.TryParse(x, out xInt);
        bool parseY = int.TryParse(y, out yInt);

        if (parseX && parseY)
        {
            return xInt.CompareTo(yInt);
        }
        else if (parseX)
        {
            return -1;
        }
        else if (parseY)
        {
            return 1;
        }
        else
        {
            return x.CompareTo(y);
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

I've created a solution for this. I've divided the list into two part then sort and concat. Please check below:

public List<ListItem> getSortedList()
{
    int dummy = 0;

    List<ListItem> list = new List<ListItem>();
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "A" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "B" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "C" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "111" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "11" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "123" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "1" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "42" });
    list.Add(new ListItem() { Item = "5" });

    var listNumber = list.Where(m => int.TryParse(m.Item, out dummy)).ToList().OrderBy(m => Convert.ToInt16(m.Item)).ToList();
    var listString = list.Where(m => !int.TryParse(m.Item, out dummy)).ToList().OrderBy(m => m.Item).ToList();

    var sortedList = listNumber.Concat(listString).ToList();

    return sortedList;
}

You can run this in DotNetFiddle .

Answer 7

Assuming you start with a collection of strings, a simple comparer should do the job:

public class Comparer : IComparer<string>
{
    public int Compare(string a, string b) 
    {
        int ia = 0;
        int ib = 0;
        var aIsInt = int.TryParse(a,out ia);
        var bIsInt = int.TryParse(b,out ib);
        if (aIsInt == bIsInt)
        {
            if (aIsInt)
            {
                return ia.CompareTo(ib);
            }
            else
            {
                return a.CompareTo(b);
            }
        }
        return aIsInt ? -1 : 1;
    }
}

Here's a fiddle

Answer 8

With Regex.Replace in the "OrderBy" it's one (fairly) simple line of code. And note that the number "3" just has to be a number equal-to or larger than your longest string, so for anyone else increase as needed.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

string[] yourStrings = new string[] { "A", "B", "C", "111", "11", "123", "1", "42", "5" };

foreach (var item in yourStrings.OrderBy(x => Regex.Replace(x, @"\d+", i => 
i.Value.PadLeft(3, '0'))))
{
    Response.Write(item + "\n");
}