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Natural-Order Filename Sort

version 3.4.2 (23.8 KB) by Stephen
Alphanumeric sort of filenames or filepaths, with customizable number format.
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Updated2021年11月29日

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Editor's Note:This file was selected as MATLAB CentralPick of the Week

To sort the elements of a string/cell array use NATSORT :
//www.tatmou.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/34464-customizable-natural-order-sort
To sort the rows of a string/cell array use NATSORTROWS :
//www.tatmou.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47433-natural-order-row-sort
Summary
Alphanumeric sort the text in a string/cell/structure array. Sorts the text by character code taking into account the values of any number substrings. Compare for example:
>> A = {'a2.txt','a10.txt',“a1.txt”};
>> sort(A)
ans =“a1.txt”'a10.txt''a2.txt'
>> natsortfiles(A)
ans =“a1.txt”'a2.txt''a10.txt'
By default NATSORTFILES interprets all consecutive digits as integer numbers, the number substring recognition can be specified using a regular expression: see NATSORT for details.
NATSORTFILES does not perform a naive natural-order sort, but sorts the filenames and file extensions separately to ensure a dictionary sort, where shorter filenames always sort before longer ones. Likewise filepaths are split at each file-separator character, and each level of the file hierarchy is sorted separately.
Example with DIR()
P ='C:\SomeDir\SubDir';
S = dir(fullfile(P,'*.txt'));
S = natsortfiles(S);
fork = 1:numel(S)
F = fullfile(P,S(k).name)
end
File Dependency
The natural-order sort is provided by the function NATSORT (File Exchange 34464). All of NATSORT 's optional inputs are supported by NATSORTFILES .
Examples
>> A = {'a2.txt','a10.txt',“a1.txt”}
>> sort(A)
ans =“a1.txt”'a10.txt''a2.txt'
>> natsortfiles(A)
ans =“a1.txt”'a2.txt''a10.txt'
>> B = {'test2.m';'test10-old.m';'test.m';'test10.m';'test1.m'};
>> sort(B)% Wrong number order:
ans =
'test.m'
'test1.m'
'test10-old.m'
'test10.m'
'test2.m'
>> natsortfiles(B)% Shorter names before longer:
ans =
'test.m'
'test1.m'
'test2.m'
'test10.m'
'test10-old.m'
%% Directory Names:
>> C = {'A2-old\test.m';'A10\test.m';'A2\test.m';'A1\test.m';'A1-archive.zip'};
>> sort(C)% Wrong number order, and '-' sorts before '\':
ans =
'A1-archive.zip'
'A10\test.m'
'A1\test.m'
'A2-old\test.m'
'A2\test.m'
>> natsortfiles(C)% Shorter names before longer:
ans =
'A1\test.m'
'A1-archive.zip'
'A2\test.m'
'A2-old\test.m'
'A10\test.m'
>> D = {'A1\B','A+/B','A/B1','A=/B','A\B0'};
>> sort(D)
ans ='A+/B''A/B1''A1\B''A=/B''A\B0'
>> natsortfiles(D)
ans ='A\B0''A/B1''A1\B''A+/B''A=/B'
>> F = {'test_new.m';'test-old.m';'test.m'};
>> sort(F)% Note '-' sorts before '.':
ans =
'test-old.m'
'test.m'
'test_new.m'
>> natsortfiles(F)% Shorter names before longer:
ans =
'test.m'
'test-old.m'
'test_new.m'

Cite As

Stephen (2021).Natural-Order Filename Sort(//www.tatmou.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47434-natural-order-filename-sort), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved.

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2010b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux

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