File Exchange

Natural-Order Filename Sort

Version 3.4.4 (24.4 KB) by Stephen23
Alphanumeric sort of filenames or filepaths, with customizable number format.
5.0
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24.8K Downloads

Updated 31 Jan 2022

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

To sort the elements of a string/cell array use NATSORT:
http:/matlabcentral/fileexchange/34464-customizable-natural-order-sort
To sort the rows of a string/cell array use NATSORTROWS:
http:/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);
for k = 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

Stephen23 (2023). Natural-Order Filename Sort (/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47434-natural-order-filename-sort), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2010b
Compatible with R2009b and later releases
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux

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Version Published Release Notes
3.4.4

* Add testcases.
3.4.3

* Now R2009b compatible.
3.4.2

* Edit description & help.
3.4.1

* Edit description & help.
3.4.0

* Add plenty of testcases.
* Fix bug in descending sort with an empty input array.
3.3.0

* Improve test function, add test cases.
* Rename options nopath->xpath, nodot->rmdot
3.2.0

* Update TESTFUN.
* Fix bug in struct parsing.
3.1.0

* More robust TESTFUN pretty-print code.
* Add NODOT option.
3.0.5

* Improve examples.
3.0.4

* Correct summary.
3.0.3

* Improve string handling.
3.0.2

* Simplify numeric class handling.
* Add permutations test examples.
3.0.1

* handle single element with no number.
3.0.0

* Accepts and sorts the structure returned by DIR.
* Accepts and sorts a string array, categorical array, cell array of char, etc.
* Regular expression and optional arguments may be string or char.
2.1.2

* Consistent alignment tab/spaces.
2.1.1

* Add error IDs.
* Add "noext" option.
2.1.0

* Fix handling of char<num.
2.0.0

* NATSORT total rewrite: faster and less memory.
* Improve HTML documentation.
* Include testcases.
1.6.0.0

* Add (very useful) debugging output argument.
1.5.0.0

* Improve blurb and HTML.
* Improve input checking.
* Include NATSORT function.
* Add HTML documentation.
* Minor help edit.
1.4.0.0

* Clearer description of file dependency.
* Improve example of filepath sorting.
1.3.0.0

* Improve function description.
* Better examples.
1.2.0.0

- Update documentation only, improve examples.
1.1.0.0

- Complete acknowledgements.
1.0.0.0