How to match alphanumerical order in both Google Drive and Google Sheets?

Question

On my Google Drive I have a folder containing 2006 files. These files are sorted by names. (from A -> Z) Here's the exact order of the files inside my folder: https://gist.github.com/cuzureau/a36deb8e02ab0f2e0523cd58f2cf0950

Now, I also have a Google Sheet with the same file names written in a column. One file name per cell. They are order alphabetically (from A -> Z) Here's the exact order of the files inside the column: https://gist.github.com/cuzureau/6fe722b821ce3aa60b697819b64d6b05

The files names are not sorted in the same order. How can I do that ?

Maybe I should use a formula in Google Sheets to reorder the files names in the column ?

Answer 1

These are two possible solutions using Google Apps Script (both tested with the first 100 files):

Grab the names directly using DriveApp

1. Enter in your sheet and click on Extensions > Apps Script
2. Copy the folder id where the files lives
3. Copy this script.

const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet()
function myFunction() {
  const folderId = "<FOLDER_ID>"
  // Get all files in the folder
  const files = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderId).getFiles()
  const toShortFiles = []
  while (files.hasNext()) {
    // save all the names
    const file = files.next()
    toShortFiles.push(file.getName())
  }
  // short A-Z
  const shorted = toShortFiles.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b)).map(n => [n])
  sheet.getRange(1, 1, shorted.length, 1).setValues(shorted)
}

Short directly creating a new sheet

This is an alternative if you have more data in the same row

function shortRows() {
  /* Create a new sheet */
  const shortedSheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().insertSheet('shortedSheet')
  const range = sheet.getRange(1, 1, sheet.getLastRow(), sheet.getLastColumn())
  const values = range.getValues()
  /* Short by name */
  const result = values.sort((a, b) => {
    return a[0].toString().localeCompare(b[0].toString())
  })
  /* Paste the data in the new sheet */
  shortedSheet.getRange(1, 1, result.length, result[0].length).setValues(result)
}

If you don't want to create a new sheet, you have available the methods moveTo and moveRows I invite you to test them.

Documentation:

• String.prototype.localeCompare()
• setValues(values)
• Class Sheet