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find the first element of an array that is not consecutive using web forms

E.g. If we have an array [1,2,3,4,6,7,8] then 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 are all consecutive but 6 is not, so that's the first non-consecutive number.
If the whole array is consecutive then return null .
The array will always have at least 2 elements 1 and all elements will be numbers. The numbers will also all be unique and in ascending order. The numbers could be positive or negative and the first non-consecutive could be either too. please help me finish this code i am new in programming. My code:
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace _2katas
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var input = this.txtInput.Text;
var numarray = input.Split(',');
int firstValue = Convert.ToInt32(numarray[0]);
for (var i = 0; i < numarray.Length; i++)
{
if (Convert.ToInt32(numarray[i]) - i != firstValue)
{
lblPrint.Text = "";
}
else
{
lblPrint.Text = "";
}
if (this.rdbConsecutive.Checked == true)
{
lblKataRunning.Text = "Consecutive";
}
else if (this.rdbStripCleaning.Checked == true)
{
lblKataRunning.Text = "Strip Cleaning";
}
}
}
}
}

Let's extract a method:
Find the first element of an array that is not consecutive ...
If the whole array is consecutive then return null
We can implement it like this:
private static string FirstInconsecutive(string data) {
var array = data.Split(',');
if (array.Length <= 0)
return null; //TODO: what shall we return on empty array?
if (!int.TryParse(array[0], out int delta))
return array[0];
for (int i = 1; i < array.Length; ++i)
if (!int.TryParse(array[i], out int value) || value - i != delta)
return array[i];
return null;
}
Usage:
string result = FirstInconsecutive(txtInput.Text);
Please note int.TryParse which helps to return the right answer "ABC" on an input like "1, 2, 3, ABC, 4, 6, 7, 8" (user input txtInput.Text can contain any string)

A linq solution just for the fun of it:
static int? FindFirstNonConsecutive(IEnumerable<int> arr)
{
var nonConsecutiveInfo =
arr.Select((i, index) => new {Index = index, Delta = i - index})
.FirstOrDefault(t => t.Delta != arr.First());
return nonConsecutiveInfo?.Delta + nonConsecutiveInfo?.Index;
}
Note that this will only work finding non consecutive numbers in ascending order as per requirements.

Two numbers are not consecutive if the left ones + 1 <> the right one.
Check with something like this, note that you have to change your boundary checks:
for (var i = 0; i < numarray.Length - 1; i++)
{
if (Convert.ToInt32(numarray[i]) + 1 != Convert.ToInt32(numarray[i+1]))

Update your condition as below for loop and it will work. I would suggest you to have separate function so that it could be reusable if needed elsewhere in code.
Here start your loop from i = 1 and compare numarray[i-1] + 1 != numarray[i] values.
You can convert your sting[] to int[] with var numarray = input.Split(',').Select(x => Convert.ToInt32(x)).ToArray(); and use it with IsConsecutive(numarray) as per button1_Click code.
You can get first non-consecutive value with minor modification in return type and return statement as shown in GetFirstNonConsecutiveValue().
public bool IsConsecutive(int[] numarray)
{
for (int i = 1; i < numarray.Length; i++)
{
if (numarray[i-1] + 1 != numarray[i])
{
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
public int? GetFirstNonConsecutiveValue(int[] numarray)
{
for (int i = 1; i < numarray.Length; i++)
{
if (numarray[i-1] + 1 != numarray[i])
{
return numarray[i];
}
}
return null;
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var input = this.txtInput.Text;
var numarray = input.Split(',').Select(x => Convert.ToInt32(x)).ToArray();
var nonConsecutiveValue = GetFirstNonConsecutiveValue(numarray);
if (nonConsecutiveValue != null)
{
// nonConsecutiveValue is first non consecutive value.
}
else
{
// sequence is consecutive.
}
}

One way to go.
string rawData = "1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9";
IEnumerable<int> data = rawData.Split(',').Select(v => Convert.ToInt32(v));
IEnumerable<int> all = Enumerable.Range(data.Min(), data.Max() - data.Min() + 1);
IEnumerable<int> diff = all.Except(data);
if (diff.Count() == 0)
{
return null;
}
return data.ElementAt(all.ToList().IndexOf(diff.First()))
NB Not thoroughly tested.
Just test diff for being empty to get the numbers are consecutive

Detect differences between two strings

I have 2 strings
string a = "foo bar";
string b = "bar foo";
and I want to detect the changes from a to b. What characters do I have to change, to get from a to b?
I think there must be a iteration over each character and detect if it was added, removed or remained equal. So this is my exprected result
'f' Remove
'o' Remove
'o' Remove
' ' Remove
'b' Equal
'a' Equal
'r' Equal
' ' Add
'f' Add
'o' Add
'o' Add
class and enum for the result:
public enum Operation { Add,Equal,Remove };
public class Difference
{
public Operation op { get; set; }
public char c { get; set; }
}
Here is my solution but the "Remove" case is not clear to me how the code has to look like
public static List<Difference> CalculateDifferences(string left, string right)
{
int count = 0;
List<Difference> result = new List<Difference>();
foreach (char ch in left)
{
int index = right.IndexOf(ch, count);
if (index == count)
{
count++;
result.Add(new Difference() { c = ch, op = Operation.Equal });
}
else if (index > count)
{
string add = right.Substring(count, index - count);
result.AddRange(add.Select(x => new Difference() { c = x, op = Operation.Add }));
count += add.Length;
}
else
{
//Remove?
}
}
return result;
}
How does the code have to look like for removed characters?
Update - added a few more examples
example 1:
string a = "foobar";
string b = "fooar";
expected result:
'f' Equal
'o' Equal
'o' Equal
'b' Remove
'a' Equal
'r' Equal
example 2:
string a = "asdfghjk";
string b = "wsedrftr";
expected result:
'a' Remove
'w' Add
's' Equal
'e' Add
'd' Equal
'r' Add
'f' Equal
'g' Remove
'h' Remove
'j' Remove
'k' Remove
't' Add
'r' Add
Update:
Here is a comparison between Dmitry's and ingen's answer: https://dotnetfiddle.net/MJQDAO

You are looking for (minimum) edit distance / (minimum) edit sequence. You can find the theory of the process here:
https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs124/lec/med.pdf
Let's implement (simplest) Levenstein Distance / Sequence algorithm (for details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance). Let's start from helper classes (I've changed a bit your implementation of them):
public enum EditOperationKind : byte {
None, // Nothing to do
Add, // Add new character
Edit, // Edit character into character (including char into itself)
Remove, // Delete existing character
};
public struct EditOperation {
public EditOperation(char valueFrom, char valueTo, EditOperationKind operation) {
ValueFrom = valueFrom;
ValueTo = valueTo;
Operation = valueFrom == valueTo ? EditOperationKind.None : operation;
}
public char ValueFrom { get; }
public char ValueTo {get ;}
public EditOperationKind Operation { get; }
public override string ToString() {
switch (Operation) {
case EditOperationKind.None:
return $"'{ValueTo}' Equal";
case EditOperationKind.Add:
return $"'{ValueTo}' Add";
case EditOperationKind.Remove:
return $"'{ValueFrom}' Remove";
case EditOperationKind.Edit:
return $"'{ValueFrom}' to '{ValueTo}' Edit";
default:
return "???";
}
}
}
As far as I can see from the examples provided we don't have any edit operation, but add + remove; that's why I've put editCost = 2 when insertCost = 1, int removeCost = 1 (in case of tie: insert + remove vs. edit we put insert + remove).
Now we are ready to implement Levenstein algorithm:
public static EditOperation[] EditSequence(
string source, string target,
int insertCost = 1, int removeCost = 1, int editCost = 2) {
if (null == source)
throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
else if (null == target)
throw new ArgumentNullException("target");
// Forward: building score matrix
// Best operation (among insert, update, delete) to perform
EditOperationKind[][] M = Enumerable
.Range(0, source.Length + 1)
.Select(line => new EditOperationKind[target.Length + 1])
.ToArray();
// Minimum cost so far
int[][] D = Enumerable
.Range(0, source.Length + 1)
.Select(line => new int[target.Length + 1])
.ToArray();
// Edge: all removes
for (int i = 1; i <= source.Length; ++i) {
M[i][0] = EditOperationKind.Remove;
D[i][0] = removeCost * i;
}
// Edge: all inserts
for (int i = 1; i <= target.Length; ++i) {
M[0][i] = EditOperationKind.Add;
D[0][i] = insertCost * i;
}
// Having fit N - 1, K - 1 characters let's fit N, K
for (int i = 1; i <= source.Length; ++i)
for (int j = 1; j <= target.Length; ++j) {
// here we choose the operation with the least cost
int insert = D[i][j - 1] + insertCost;
int delete = D[i - 1][j] + removeCost;
int edit = D[i - 1][j - 1] + (source[i - 1] == target[j - 1] ? 0 : editCost);
int min = Math.Min(Math.Min(insert, delete), edit);
if (min == insert)
M[i][j] = EditOperationKind.Add;
else if (min == delete)
M[i][j] = EditOperationKind.Remove;
else if (min == edit)
M[i][j] = EditOperationKind.Edit;
D[i][j] = min;
}
// Backward: knowing scores (D) and actions (M) let's building edit sequence
List<EditOperation> result =
new List<EditOperation>(source.Length + target.Length);
for (int x = target.Length, y = source.Length; (x > 0) || (y > 0);) {
EditOperationKind op = M[y][x];
if (op == EditOperationKind.Add) {
x -= 1;
result.Add(new EditOperation('\0', target[x], op));
}
else if (op == EditOperationKind.Remove) {
y -= 1;
result.Add(new EditOperation(source[y], '\0', op));
}
else if (op == EditOperationKind.Edit) {
x -= 1;
y -= 1;
result.Add(new EditOperation(source[y], target[x], op));
}
else // Start of the matching (EditOperationKind.None)
break;
}
result.Reverse();
return result.ToArray();
}
Demo:
var sequence = EditSequence("asdfghjk", "wsedrftr");
Console.Write(string.Join(Environment.NewLine, sequence));
Outcome:
'a' Remove
'w' Add
's' Equal
'e' Add
'd' Equal
'r' Add
'f' Equal
'g' Remove
'h' Remove
'j' Remove
'k' Remove
't' Add
'r' Add

I'll go out on a limb here and provide an algorithm that's not the most efficient, but is easy to reason about.
Let's cover some ground first:
1) Order matters
string before = "bar foo"
string after = "foo bar"
Even though "bar" and "foo" occur in both strings, "bar" will need to be removed and added again later. This also tells us it's the after string that gives us the order of chars we're interested in, we want "foo" first.
2) Order over count
Another way to look at it, is that some chars may never get their turn.
string before = "abracadabra"
string after = "bar bar"
Only the bold chars of "bar bar", get their say in "abracadabra". Even though we've got two b's in both strings, only the first one counts. By the time we get to the second b in "bar bar" the second b in "abracadabra" has already been passed, when we were looking for the first occurrence of 'r'.
3) Barriers
Barriers are the chars that exist in both strings, taking order and count into consideration. This already suggests a set might not be the most appropriate data structure, as we would lose count.
For an input
string before = "pinata"
string after = "accidental"
We get (pseudocode)
var barriers = { 'a', 't', 'a' }
"pinata"
"accidental"
Let's follow the execution flow:
'a' is the first barrier, it's also the first char of after so everything prepending the first 'a' in before can be removed. "pinata" -> "ata"
the second barrier is 't', it's not at the next position in our after string, so we can insert everything in between. "ata" -> "accidenta"
the third barrier 'a' is already at the next position, so we can move to the next barrier without doing any real work.
there are no more barriers, but our string length is still less than that of after, so there will be some post processing. "accidenta" -> "accidental"
Note 'i' and 'n' don't get to play, again, order over count.
Implementation
We've established that order and count matter, a Queue comes to mind.
static public List<Difference> CalculateDifferences(string before, string after)
{
List<Difference> result = new List<Difference>();
Queue<char> barriers = new Queue<char>();
#region Preprocessing
int index = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < after.Length; i++)
{
// Look for the first match starting at index
int match = before.IndexOf(after[i], index);
if (match != -1)
{
barriers.Enqueue(after[i]);
index = match + 1;
}
}
#endregion
#region Queue Processing
index = 0;
while (barriers.Any())
{
char barrier = barriers.Dequeue();
// Get the offset to the barrier in both strings,
// ignoring the part that's already been handled
int offsetBefore = before.IndexOf(barrier, index) - index;
int offsetAfter = after.IndexOf(barrier, index) - index;
// Remove prefix from 'before' string
if (offsetBefore > 0)
{
RemoveChars(before.Substring(index, offsetBefore), result);
before = before.Substring(offsetBefore);
}
// Insert prefix from 'after' string
if (offsetAfter > 0)
{
string substring = after.Substring(index, offsetAfter);
AddChars(substring, result);
before = before.Insert(index, substring);
index += substring.Length;
}
// Jump over the barrier
KeepChar(barrier, result);
index++;
}
#endregion
#region Post Queue processing
if (index < before.Length)
{
RemoveChars(before.Substring(index), result);
}
if (index < after.Length)
{
AddChars(after.Substring(index), result);
}
#endregion
return result;
}
static private void KeepChar(char barrier, List<Difference> result)
{
result.Add(new Difference()
{
c = barrier,
op = Operation.Equal
});
}
static private void AddChars(string substring, List<Difference> result)
{
result.AddRange(substring.Select(x => new Difference()
{
c = x,
op = Operation.Add
}));
}
static private void RemoveChars(string substring, List<Difference> result)
{
result.AddRange(substring.Select(x => new Difference()
{
c = x,
op = Operation.Remove
}));
}

I tested with 3 examples above, and it returns the expected result properly and perfectly.
int flag = 0;
int flag_2 = 0;
string a = "asdfghjk";
string b = "wsedrftr";
char[] array_a = a.ToCharArray();
char[] array_b = b.ToCharArray();
for (int i = 0,j = 0, n= 0; i < array_b.Count(); i++)
{
//Execute 1 time until reach first equal character
if(i == 0 && a.Contains(array_b[0]))
{
while (array_a[n] != array_b[0])
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[n], " : Remove"));
n++;
}
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[n], " : Equal"));
n++;
}
else if(i == 0 && !a.Contains(array_b[0]))
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[n], " : Remove"));
n++;
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_b[0], " : Add"));
}
else
{
if(n < array_a.Count())
{
if (array_a[n] == array_b[i])
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[n], " : Equal"));
n++;
}
else
{
flag = 0;
for (int z = n; z < array_a.Count(); z++)
{
if (array_a[z] == array_b[i])
{
flag = 1;
break;
}
}
if (flag == 0)
{
flag_2 = 0;
for (int aa = i; aa < array_b.Count(); aa++)
{
for(int bb = n; bb < array_a.Count(); bb++)
{
if (array_b[aa] == array_a[bb])
{
flag_2 = 1;
break;
}
}
}
if(flag_2 == 1)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_b[i], " : Add"));
}
else
{
for (int z = n; z < array_a.Count(); z++)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[z], " : Remove"));
n++;
}
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_b[i], " : Add"));
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_a[n], " : Remove"));
i--;
n++;
}
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(array_b[i], " : Add"));
}
}
}//end for
MessageBox.Show("Done");
//OUTPUT CONSOLE:
/*
a : Remove
w : Add
s : Equal
e : Add
d : Equal
r : Add
f : Equal
g : Remove
h : Remove
j : Remove
k : Remove
t : Add
r : Add
*/

Here might be another solution, full code and commented.
However the result of your first original example is inverted :
class Program
{
enum CharState
{
Add,
Equal,
Remove
}
struct CharResult
{
public char c;
public CharState state;
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string a = "asdfghjk";
string b = "wsedrftr";
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine("Enter string a (enter to quit) :");
a = Console.ReadLine();
if (a == string.Empty)
break;
Console.WriteLine("Enter string b :");
b = Console.ReadLine();
List<CharResult> result = calculate(a, b);
DisplayResults(result);
}
Console.WriteLine("Press a key to exit");
Console.ReadLine();
}
static List<CharResult> calculate(string a, string b)
{
List<CharResult> res = new List<CharResult>();
int i = 0, j = 0;
char[] array_a = a.ToCharArray();
char[] array_b = b.ToCharArray();
while (i < array_a.Length && j < array_b.Length)
{
//For the current char in a, we check for the equal in b
int index = b.IndexOf(array_a[i], j);
if (index < 0) //not found, this char should be removed
{
res.Add(new CharResult() { c = array_a[i], state = CharState.Remove });
i++;
}
else
{
//we add all the chars between B's current index and the index
while (j < index)
{
res.Add(new CharResult() { c = array_b[j], state = CharState.Add });
j++;
}
//then we say the current is the same
res.Add(new CharResult() { c = array_a[i], state = CharState.Equal });
i++;
j++;
}
}
while (i < array_a.Length)
{
//b is now empty, we remove the remains
res.Add(new CharResult() { c = array_a[i], state = CharState.Remove });
i++;
}
while (j < array_b.Length)
{
//a has been treated, we add the remains
res.Add(new CharResult() { c = array_b[j], state = CharState.Add });
j++;
}
return res;
}
static void DisplayResults(List<CharResult> results)
{
foreach (CharResult r in results)
{
Console.WriteLine($"'{r.c}' - {r.state}");
}
}
}

If you want to have a precise comparison between two strings, you must read and understand Levenshtein Distance. by using this algorithm you can precisely calculate rate of similarity between two string and also you can backtrack the algorithm to get the chain of changing on the second string. this algorithm is a important metric for Natural Language Processing also.
there are some other benefits and it's need time to learn.
in this link there is a C# version of Levenshtein Distance :
https://www.dotnetperls.com/levenshtein

Comparing rapidly-changing string values to find frequent occurrences

My problem should be quite simple. I have a random generated string that changes multiple times per second. I want to return 1 if it appears x times consecutively.
My current code:
string s; //this is the generated string
int checker = 0;
string[] s_list = null;
if( cheaker == 0)
{
s_list[0] = s;
}
else if( cheaker == 1)
{
s_list[1] = s;
}
checker++;
if(s_list[0] == s_list[1]) return 1;
My problem is that I want to be able to change the amount of x times if appears and like this it will generate tons of code if the x is too big.
Do you think putting the current string into an array of string and compare them is the best way? There should be a better implementation.

To make the code generic for any given X, you should keep last X strings and check whether all they are equal, e.g.:
List<string> list = new List<string>();
if (list.Count >= X)
{
list.RemoveAt(0);
}
list.Add(newString);
return list.Count >= X && list.Any(s => s == list[0]);

I assume s_list is an array where you store all the generations of the string
string s;
string[] s_list;
// Your logic that would generate s and store it in s_list
// ...
// ...
int required_amount = 10; // whatever X amount you want
int current_sequence = 0;
// It's important to start at 1, and not 0,
// as you compare to the previous entry each time
for(int i = 1; i < s_list.Lenght; i++ )
{
if( s_list[i] == s_list[i-1] )
{
current_sequence++;
if(current_sequence >= required_amount)
{
return 1;
}
}
else
{
current_sequence = 0;
}
}

SortedSet.Remove() does not remove anything

I am currently implementing Dijkstra's algorithm and I am using the C# SortedSet as a priority queue.
However, in order to keep track of what vertices I have already visited, I want to remove the first item from the priority queue.
Here is my code:
static int shortestPath(int start, int target)
{
SortedSet<int> PQ = new SortedSet<int>(new compareByVertEstimate());
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
if (i == start - 1)
vertices[i].estimate = 0;
else
vertices[i].estimate = int.MaxValue;
PQ.Add(i);
}
int noOfVisited = 0;
while (noOfVisited < n)
{
int u = PQ.First();
noOfVisited++;
foreach (Edge e in vertices[u].neighbours)
{
if (vertices[e.target.Item1].estimate > vertices[u].estimate + e.length)
{
vertices[e.target.Item1].estimate = vertices[u].estimate + e.length;
}
}
PQ.Remove(u);
}
return vertices[target - 1].estimate;
}
And this is the comparer:
public class compareByVertEstimate : IComparer<int>
{
public int Compare(int a, int b)
{
if (Program.vertices[a].estimate >= Program.vertices[b].estimate) return 1;
else return -1;
}
}
My priority queue does not explicitly hold vertices, instead I have an array of vertices and the priority queue holds the indices.
So the priority queue is sorted based on the 'estimate' integer that each vertex holds.
Now my problem is, I can easily retrieve the first element from the SortedSet using .First(), or .Min, but when I try to remove that element with .Remove(), the method returns false, and nothing gets removed. The SortedSet remains unchanged.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT
I changed the Comparer to this:
public class compareByVertEstimate : IComparer<int>
{
public int Compare(int a, int b)
{
if (Program.vertices[a].estimate == Program.vertices[b].estimate) return 0;
else if (Program.vertices[a].estimate >= Program.vertices[b].estimate) return 1;
else return -1;
}
}
But now the priority queue doesn't contain all the right elements anymore.
(Note, the priority queue will contain pointers to vertices that have the same estimate value)

Your compare function never compares two elements as equal (return 0;).
Your collection will not be able to remove an element that is not equal to any element it holds.
Example:
public class compareByVertEstimate : IComparer<int>
{
public int Compare(int a, int b)
{
if (a == b) return 0;
if (Program.vertices[a].estimate >= Program.vertices[b].estimate) return 1;
return -1;
}
}
#hvd is correct of course, while the above version works, it's quite broken. A better comparer might be:
public class compareByVertEstimate : IComparer<int>
{
public int Compare(int a, int b)
{
var ae = Program.vertices[a].estimate;
var be = Program.vertices[b].estimate;
var result = ae.CompareTo(be);
if (result == 0) return a.CompareTo(b);
return result;
}
}

Natural Sort Order in C#

Anyone have a good resource or provide a sample of a natural order sort in C# for an FileInfo array? I am implementing the IComparer interface in my sorts.

The easiest thing to do is just P/Invoke the built-in function in Windows, and use it as the comparison function in your IComparer:
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern int StrCmpLogicalW(string psz1, string psz2);
Michael Kaplan has some examples of how this function works here, and the changes that were made for Vista to make it work more intuitively. The plus side of this function is that it will have the same behaviour as the version of Windows it runs on, however this does mean that it differs between versions of Windows so you need to consider whether this is a problem for you.
So a complete implementation would be something like:
[SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity]
internal static class SafeNativeMethods
{
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public static extern int StrCmpLogicalW(string psz1, string psz2);
}
public sealed class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public int Compare(string a, string b)
{
return SafeNativeMethods.StrCmpLogicalW(a, b);
}
}
public sealed class NaturalFileInfoNameComparer : IComparer<FileInfo>
{
public int Compare(FileInfo a, FileInfo b)
{
return SafeNativeMethods.StrCmpLogicalW(a.Name, b.Name);
}
}

Just thought I'd add to this (with the most concise solution I could find):
public static IOrderedEnumerable<T> OrderByAlphaNumeric<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, string> selector)
{
int max = source
.SelectMany(i => Regex.Matches(selector(i), #"\d+").Cast<Match>().Select(m => (int?)m.Value.Length))
.Max() ?? 0;
return source.OrderBy(i => Regex.Replace(selector(i), #"\d+", m => m.Value.PadLeft(max, '0')));
}
The above pads any numbers in the string to the max length of all numbers in all strings and uses the resulting string to sort.
The cast to (int?) is to allow for collections of strings without any numbers (.Max() on an empty enumerable throws an InvalidOperationException).

None of the existing implementations looked great so I wrote my own. The results are almost identical to the sorting used by modern versions of Windows Explorer (Windows 7/8). The only differences I've seen are 1) although Windows used to (e.g. XP) handle numbers of any length, it's now limited to 19 digits - mine is unlimited, 2) Windows gives inconsistent results with certain sets of Unicode digits - mine works fine (although it doesn't numerically compare digits from surrogate pairs; nor does Windows), and 3) mine can't distinguish different types of non-primary sort weights if they occur in different sections (e.g. "e-1é" vs "é1e-" - the sections before and after the number have diacritic and punctuation weight differences).
public static int CompareNatural(string strA, string strB) {
return CompareNatural(strA, strB, CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, CompareOptions.IgnoreCase);
}
public static int CompareNatural(string strA, string strB, CultureInfo culture, CompareOptions options) {
CompareInfo cmp = culture.CompareInfo;
int iA = 0;
int iB = 0;
int softResult = 0;
int softResultWeight = 0;
while (iA < strA.Length && iB < strB.Length) {
bool isDigitA = Char.IsDigit(strA[iA]);
bool isDigitB = Char.IsDigit(strB[iB]);
if (isDigitA != isDigitB) {
return cmp.Compare(strA, iA, strB, iB, options);
}
else if (!isDigitA && !isDigitB) {
int jA = iA + 1;
int jB = iB + 1;
while (jA < strA.Length && !Char.IsDigit(strA[jA])) jA++;
while (jB < strB.Length && !Char.IsDigit(strB[jB])) jB++;
int cmpResult = cmp.Compare(strA, iA, jA - iA, strB, iB, jB - iB, options);
if (cmpResult != 0) {
// Certain strings may be considered different due to "soft" differences that are
// ignored if more significant differences follow, e.g. a hyphen only affects the
// comparison if no other differences follow
string sectionA = strA.Substring(iA, jA - iA);
string sectionB = strB.Substring(iB, jB - iB);
if (cmp.Compare(sectionA + "1", sectionB + "2", options) ==
cmp.Compare(sectionA + "2", sectionB + "1", options))
{
return cmp.Compare(strA, iA, strB, iB, options);
}
else if (softResultWeight < 1) {
softResult = cmpResult;
softResultWeight = 1;
}
}
iA = jA;
iB = jB;
}
else {
char zeroA = (char)(strA[iA] - (int)Char.GetNumericValue(strA[iA]));
char zeroB = (char)(strB[iB] - (int)Char.GetNumericValue(strB[iB]));
int jA = iA;
int jB = iB;
while (jA < strA.Length && strA[jA] == zeroA) jA++;
while (jB < strB.Length && strB[jB] == zeroB) jB++;
int resultIfSameLength = 0;
do {
isDigitA = jA < strA.Length && Char.IsDigit(strA[jA]);
isDigitB = jB < strB.Length && Char.IsDigit(strB[jB]);
int numA = isDigitA ? (int)Char.GetNumericValue(strA[jA]) : 0;
int numB = isDigitB ? (int)Char.GetNumericValue(strB[jB]) : 0;
if (isDigitA && (char)(strA[jA] - numA) != zeroA) isDigitA = false;
if (isDigitB && (char)(strB[jB] - numB) != zeroB) isDigitB = false;
if (isDigitA && isDigitB) {
if (numA != numB && resultIfSameLength == 0) {
resultIfSameLength = numA < numB ? -1 : 1;
}
jA++;
jB++;
}
}
while (isDigitA && isDigitB);
if (isDigitA != isDigitB) {
// One number has more digits than the other (ignoring leading zeros) - the longer
// number must be larger
return isDigitA ? 1 : -1;
}
else if (resultIfSameLength != 0) {
// Both numbers are the same length (ignoring leading zeros) and at least one of
// the digits differed - the first difference determines the result
return resultIfSameLength;
}
int lA = jA - iA;
int lB = jB - iB;
if (lA != lB) {
// Both numbers are equivalent but one has more leading zeros
return lA > lB ? -1 : 1;
}
else if (zeroA != zeroB && softResultWeight < 2) {
softResult = cmp.Compare(strA, iA, 1, strB, iB, 1, options);
softResultWeight = 2;
}
iA = jA;
iB = jB;
}
}
if (iA < strA.Length || iB < strB.Length) {
return iA < strA.Length ? 1 : -1;
}
else if (softResult != 0) {
return softResult;
}
return 0;
}
The signature matches the Comparison<string> delegate:
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(#"C:\");
Array.Sort(files, CompareNatural);
Here's a wrapper class for use as IComparer<string>:
public class CustomComparer<T> : IComparer<T> {
private Comparison<T> _comparison;
public CustomComparer(Comparison<T> comparison) {
_comparison = comparison;
}
public int Compare(T x, T y) {
return _comparison(x, y);
}
}
Example:
string[] files = Directory.EnumerateFiles(#"C:\")
.OrderBy(f => f, new CustomComparer<string>(CompareNatural))
.ToArray();
Here's a good set of filenames I use for testing:
Func<string, string> expand = (s) => { int o; while ((o = s.IndexOf('\\')) != -1) { int p = o + 1;
int z = 1; while (s[p] == '0') { z++; p++; } int c = Int32.Parse(s.Substring(p, z));
s = s.Substring(0, o) + new string(s[o - 1], c) + s.Substring(p + z); } return s; };
string encodedFileNames =
"KDEqLW4xMiotbjEzKjAwMDFcMDY2KjAwMlwwMTcqMDA5XDAxNyowMlwwMTcqMDlcMDE3KjEhKjEtISox" +
"LWEqMS4yNT8xLjI1KjEuNT8xLjUqMSoxXDAxNyoxXDAxOCoxXDAxOSoxXDA2NioxXDA2NyoxYSoyXDAx" +
"NyoyXDAxOCo5XDAxNyo5XDAxOCo5XDA2Nio9MSphMDAxdGVzdDAxKmEwMDF0ZXN0aW5nYTBcMzEqYTAw" +
"Mj9hMDAyIGE/YTAwMiBhKmEwMDIqYTAwMmE/YTAwMmEqYTAxdGVzdGluZ2EwMDEqYTAxdnNmcyphMSph" +
"MWEqYTF6KmEyKmIwMDAzcTYqYjAwM3E0KmIwM3E1KmMtZSpjZCpjZipmIDEqZipnP2cgMT9oLW4qaG8t" +
"bipJKmljZS1jcmVhbT9pY2VjcmVhbT9pY2VjcmVhbS0/ajBcNDE/ajAwMWE/ajAxP2shKmsnKmstKmsx" +
"KmthKmxpc3QqbTAwMDNhMDA1YSptMDAzYTAwMDVhKm0wMDNhMDA1Km0wMDNhMDA1YSpuMTIqbjEzKm8t" +
"bjAxMypvLW4xMipvLW40P28tbjQhP28tbjR6P28tbjlhLWI1Km8tbjlhYjUqb24wMTMqb24xMipvbjQ/" +
"b240IT9vbjR6P29uOWEtYjUqb245YWI1Km/CrW4wMTMqb8KtbjEyKnAwMCpwMDEqcDAxwr0hKnAwMcK9" +
"KnAwMcK9YSpwMDHCvcK+KnAwMipwMMK9KnEtbjAxMypxLW4xMipxbjAxMypxbjEyKnItMDAhKnItMDAh" +
"NSpyLTAwIe+8lSpyLTAwYSpyLe+8kFwxIS01KnIt77yQXDEhLe+8lSpyLe+8kFwxISpyLe+8kFwxITUq" +
"ci3vvJBcMSHvvJUqci3vvJBcMWEqci3vvJBcMyE1KnIwMCEqcjAwLTUqcjAwLjUqcjAwNSpyMDBhKnIw" +
"NSpyMDYqcjQqcjUqctmg2aYqctmkKnLZpSpy27Dbtipy27Qqctu1KnLfgN+GKnLfhCpy34UqcuClpuCl" +
"rCpy4KWqKnLgpasqcuCnpuCnrCpy4KeqKnLgp6sqcuCppuCprCpy4KmqKnLgqasqcuCrpuCrrCpy4Kuq" +
"KnLgq6sqcuCtpuCtrCpy4K2qKnLgrasqcuCvpuCvrCpy4K+qKnLgr6sqcuCxpuCxrCpy4LGqKnLgsasq" +
"cuCzpuCzrCpy4LOqKnLgs6sqcuC1puC1rCpy4LWqKnLgtasqcuC5kOC5lipy4LmUKnLguZUqcuC7kOC7" +
"lipy4LuUKnLgu5UqcuC8oOC8pipy4LykKnLgvKUqcuGBgOGBhipy4YGEKnLhgYUqcuGCkOGClipy4YKU" +
"KnLhgpUqcuGfoOGfpipy4Z+kKnLhn6UqcuGgkOGglipy4aCUKnLhoJUqcuGlhuGljCpy4aWKKnLhpYsq" +
"cuGnkOGnlipy4aeUKnLhp5UqcuGtkOGtlipy4a2UKnLhrZUqcuGusOGutipy4a60KnLhrrUqcuGxgOGx" +
"hipy4bGEKnLhsYUqcuGxkOGxlipy4bGUKnLhsZUqcuqYoFwx6pilKnLqmKDqmKUqcuqYoOqYpipy6pik" +
"KnLqmKUqcuqjkOqjlipy6qOUKnLqo5UqcuqkgOqkhipy6qSEKnLqpIUqcuqpkOqplipy6qmUKnLqqZUq" +
"cvCQkqAqcvCQkqUqcvCdn5gqcvCdn50qcu+8kFwxISpy77yQXDEt77yVKnLvvJBcMS7vvJUqcu+8kFwx" +
"YSpy77yQXDHqmKUqcu+8kFwx77yO77yVKnLvvJBcMe+8lSpy77yQ77yVKnLvvJDvvJYqcu+8lCpy77yV" +
"KnNpKnPEsSp0ZXN02aIqdGVzdNmi2aAqdGVzdNmjKnVBZS0qdWFlKnViZS0qdUJlKnVjZS0xw6kqdWNl" +
"McOpLSp1Y2Uxw6kqdWPDqS0xZSp1Y8OpMWUtKnVjw6kxZSp3ZWlhMSp3ZWlhMip3ZWlzczEqd2Vpc3My" +
"KndlaXoxKndlaXoyKndlacOfMSp3ZWnDnzIqeSBhMyp5IGE0KnknYTMqeSdhNCp5K2EzKnkrYTQqeS1h" +
"Myp5LWE0KnlhMyp5YTQqej96IDA1MD96IDIxP3ohMjE/ejIwP3oyMj96YTIxP3rCqTIxP1sxKl8xKsKt" +
"bjEyKsKtbjEzKsSwKg==";
string[] fileNames = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(encodedFileNames))
.Replace("*", ".txt?").Split(new[] { "?" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
.Select(n => expand(n)).ToArray();

Matthews Horsleys answer is the fastest method which doesn't change behaviour depending on which version of windows your program is running on. However, it can be even faster by creating the regex once, and using RegexOptions.Compiled. I also added the option of inserting a string comparer so you can ignore case if needed, and improved readability a bit.
public static IEnumerable<T> OrderByNatural<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, Func<T, string> selector, StringComparer stringComparer = null)
{
var regex = new Regex(#"\d+", RegexOptions.Compiled);
int maxDigits = items
.SelectMany(i => regex.Matches(selector(i)).Cast<Match>().Select(digitChunk => (int?)digitChunk.Value.Length))
.Max() ?? 0;
return items.OrderBy(i => regex.Replace(selector(i), match => match.Value.PadLeft(maxDigits, '0')), stringComparer ?? StringComparer.CurrentCulture);
}
Use by
var sortedEmployees = employees.OrderByNatural(emp => emp.Name);
This takes 450ms to sort 100,000 strings compared to 300ms for the default .net string comparison - pretty fast!

Pure C# solution for linq orderby:
http://zootfroot.blogspot.com/2009/09/natural-sort-compare-with-linq-orderby.html
public class NaturalSortComparer<T> : IComparer<string>, IDisposable
{
private bool isAscending;
public NaturalSortComparer(bool inAscendingOrder = true)
{
this.isAscending = inAscendingOrder;
}
#region IComparer<string> Members
public int Compare(string x, string y)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
#endregion
#region IComparer<string> Members
int IComparer<string>.Compare(string x, string y)
{
if (x == y)
return 0;
string[] x1, y1;
if (!table.TryGetValue(x, out x1))
{
x1 = Regex.Split(x.Replace(" ", ""), "([0-9]+)");
table.Add(x, x1);
}
if (!table.TryGetValue(y, out y1))
{
y1 = Regex.Split(y.Replace(" ", ""), "([0-9]+)");
table.Add(y, y1);
}
int returnVal;
for (int i = 0; i < x1.Length && i < y1.Length; i++)
{
if (x1[i] != y1[i])
{
returnVal = PartCompare(x1[i], y1[i]);
return isAscending ? returnVal : -returnVal;
}
}
if (y1.Length > x1.Length)
{
returnVal = 1;
}
else if (x1.Length > y1.Length)
{
returnVal = -1;
}
else
{
returnVal = 0;
}
return isAscending ? returnVal : -returnVal;
}
private static int PartCompare(string left, string right)
{
int x, y;
if (!int.TryParse(left, out x))
return left.CompareTo(right);
if (!int.TryParse(right, out y))
return left.CompareTo(right);
return x.CompareTo(y);
}
#endregion
private Dictionary<string, string[]> table = new Dictionary<string, string[]>();
public void Dispose()
{
table.Clear();
table = null;
}
}

My solution:
void Main()
{
new[] {"a4","a3","a2","a10","b5","b4","b400","1","C1d","c1d2"}.OrderBy(x => x, new NaturalStringComparer()).Dump();
}
public class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
private static readonly Regex _re = new Regex(#"(?<=\D)(?=\d)|(?<=\d)(?=\D)", RegexOptions.Compiled);
public int Compare(string x, string y)
{
x = x.ToLower();
y = y.ToLower();
if(string.Compare(x, 0, y, 0, Math.Min(x.Length, y.Length)) == 0)
{
if(x.Length == y.Length) return 0;
return x.Length < y.Length ? -1 : 1;
}
var a = _re.Split(x);
var b = _re.Split(y);
int i = 0;
while(true)
{
int r = PartCompare(a[i], b[i]);
if(r != 0) return r;
++i;
}
}
private static int PartCompare(string x, string y)
{
int a, b;
if(int.TryParse(x, out a) && int.TryParse(y, out b))
return a.CompareTo(b);
return x.CompareTo(y);
}
}
Results:
1
a2
a3
a4
a10
b4
b5
b400
C1d
c1d2

You do need to be careful -- I vaguely recall reading that StrCmpLogicalW, or something like it, was not strictly transitive, and I have observed .NET's sort methods to sometimes get stuck in infinite loops if the comparison function breaks that rule.
A transitive comparison will always report that a < c if a < b and b < c. There exists a function that does a natural sort order comparison that does not always meet that criterion, but I can't recall whether it is StrCmpLogicalW or something else.

This is my code to sort a string having both alpha and numeric characters.
First, this extension method:
public static IEnumerable<string> AlphanumericSort(this IEnumerable<string> me)
{
return me.OrderBy(x => Regex.Replace(x, #"\d+", m => m.Value.PadLeft(50, '0')));
}
Then, simply use it anywhere in your code like this:
List<string> test = new List<string>() { "The 1st", "The 12th", "The 2nd" };
test = test.AlphanumericSort();
How does it works ? By replaceing with zeros:
Original | Regex Replace | The | Returned
List | Apply PadLeft | Sorting | List
| | |
"The 1st" | "The 001st" | "The 001st" | "The 1st"
"The 12th" | "The 012th" | "The 002nd" | "The 2nd"
"The 2nd" | "The 002nd" | "The 012th" | "The 12th"
Works with multiples numbers:
Alphabetical Sorting | Alphanumeric Sorting
|
"Page 21, Line 42" | "Page 3, Line 7"
"Page 21, Line 5" | "Page 3, Line 32"
"Page 3, Line 32" | "Page 21, Line 5"
"Page 3, Line 7" | "Page 21, Line 42"
Hope that's will help.

Here's a version for .NET Core 2.1+ / .NET 5.0+, using spans to avoid allocations
public class NaturalSortStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public static NaturalSortStringComparer Ordinal { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.Ordinal);
public static NaturalSortStringComparer OrdinalIgnoreCase { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
public static NaturalSortStringComparer CurrentCulture { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.CurrentCulture);
public static NaturalSortStringComparer CurrentCultureIgnoreCase { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
public static NaturalSortStringComparer InvariantCulture { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.InvariantCulture);
public static NaturalSortStringComparer InvariantCultureIgnoreCase { get; } = new NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
private readonly StringComparison _comparison;
public NaturalSortStringComparer(StringComparison comparison)
{
_comparison = comparison;
}
public int Compare(string x, string y)
{
// Let string.Compare handle the case where x or y is null
if (x is null || y is null)
return string.Compare(x, y, _comparison);
var xSegments = GetSegments(x);
var ySegments = GetSegments(y);
while (xSegments.MoveNext() && ySegments.MoveNext())
{
int cmp;
// If they're both numbers, compare the value
if (xSegments.CurrentIsNumber && ySegments.CurrentIsNumber)
{
var xValue = long.Parse(xSegments.Current);
var yValue = long.Parse(ySegments.Current);
cmp = xValue.CompareTo(yValue);
if (cmp != 0)
return cmp;
}
// If x is a number and y is not, x is "lesser than" y
else if (xSegments.CurrentIsNumber)
{
return -1;
}
// If y is a number and x is not, x is "greater than" y
else if (ySegments.CurrentIsNumber)
{
return 1;
}
// OK, neither are number, compare the segments as text
cmp = xSegments.Current.CompareTo(ySegments.Current, _comparison);
if (cmp != 0)
return cmp;
}
// At this point, either all segments are equal, or one string is shorter than the other
// If x is shorter, it's "lesser than" y
if (x.Length < y.Length)
return -1;
// If x is longer, it's "greater than" y
if (x.Length > y.Length)
return 1;
// If they have the same length, they're equal
return 0;
}
private static StringSegmentEnumerator GetSegments(string s) => new StringSegmentEnumerator(s);
private struct StringSegmentEnumerator
{
private readonly string _s;
private int _start;
private int _length;
public StringSegmentEnumerator(string s)
{
_s = s;
_start = -1;
_length = 0;
CurrentIsNumber = false;
}
public ReadOnlySpan<char> Current => _s.AsSpan(_start, _length);
public bool CurrentIsNumber { get; private set; }
public bool MoveNext()
{
var currentPosition = _start >= 0
? _start + _length
: 0;
if (currentPosition >= _s.Length)
return false;
int start = currentPosition;
bool isFirstCharDigit = Char.IsDigit(_s[currentPosition]);
while (++currentPosition < _s.Length && Char.IsDigit(_s[currentPosition]) == isFirstCharDigit)
{
}
_start = start;
_length = currentPosition - start;
CurrentIsNumber = isFirstCharDigit;
return true;
}
}
}

Adding to Greg Beech's answer (because I've just been searching for that), if you want to use this from Linq you can use the OrderBy that takes an IComparer. E.g.:
var items = new List<MyItem>();
// fill items
var sorted = items.OrderBy(item => item.Name, new NaturalStringComparer());

Here's a relatively simple example that doesn't use P/Invoke and avoids any allocation during execution.
Feel free to use the code from here, or if it's easier there's a NuGet package:
https://www.nuget.org/packages/NaturalSort
https://github.com/drewnoakes/natural-sort
internal sealed class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public static NaturalStringComparer Instance { get; } = new NaturalStringComparer();
public int Compare(string x, string y)
{
// sort nulls to the start
if (x == null)
return y == null ? 0 : -1;
if (y == null)
return 1;
var ix = 0;
var iy = 0;
while (true)
{
// sort shorter strings to the start
if (ix >= x.Length)
return iy >= y.Length ? 0 : -1;
if (iy >= y.Length)
return 1;
var cx = x[ix];
var cy = y[iy];
int result;
if (char.IsDigit(cx) && char.IsDigit(cy))
result = CompareInteger(x, y, ref ix, ref iy);
else
result = cx.CompareTo(y[iy]);
if (result != 0)
return result;
ix++;
iy++;
}
}
private static int CompareInteger(string x, string y, ref int ix, ref int iy)
{
var lx = GetNumLength(x, ix);
var ly = GetNumLength(y, iy);
// shorter number first (note, doesn't handle leading zeroes)
if (lx != ly)
return lx.CompareTo(ly);
for (var i = 0; i < lx; i++)
{
var result = x[ix++].CompareTo(y[iy++]);
if (result != 0)
return result;
}
return 0;
}
private static int GetNumLength(string s, int i)
{
var length = 0;
while (i < s.Length && char.IsDigit(s[i++]))
length++;
return length;
}
}
It doesn't ignore leading zeroes, so 01 comes after 2.
Corresponding unit test:
public class NumericStringComparerTests
{
[Fact]
public void OrdersCorrectly()
{
AssertEqual("", "");
AssertEqual(null, null);
AssertEqual("Hello", "Hello");
AssertEqual("Hello123", "Hello123");
AssertEqual("123", "123");
AssertEqual("123Hello", "123Hello");
AssertOrdered("", "Hello");
AssertOrdered(null, "Hello");
AssertOrdered("Hello", "Hello1");
AssertOrdered("Hello123", "Hello124");
AssertOrdered("Hello123", "Hello133");
AssertOrdered("Hello123", "Hello223");
AssertOrdered("123", "124");
AssertOrdered("123", "133");
AssertOrdered("123", "223");
AssertOrdered("123", "1234");
AssertOrdered("123", "2345");
AssertOrdered("0", "1");
AssertOrdered("123Hello", "124Hello");
AssertOrdered("123Hello", "133Hello");
AssertOrdered("123Hello", "223Hello");
AssertOrdered("123Hello", "1234Hello");
}
private static void AssertEqual(string x, string y)
{
Assert.Equal(0, NaturalStringComparer.Instance.Compare(x, y));
Assert.Equal(0, NaturalStringComparer.Instance.Compare(y, x));
}
private static void AssertOrdered(string x, string y)
{
Assert.Equal(-1, NaturalStringComparer.Instance.Compare(x, y));
Assert.Equal( 1, NaturalStringComparer.Instance.Compare(y, x));
}
}

I've actually implemented it as an extension method on the StringComparer so that you could do for example:
StringComparer.CurrentCulture.WithNaturalSort() or
StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase.WithNaturalSort().
The resulting IComparer<string> can be used in all places like OrderBy, OrderByDescending, ThenBy, ThenByDescending, SortedSet<string>, etc. And you can still easily tweak case sensitivity, culture, etc.
The implementation is fairly trivial and it should perform quite well even on large sequences.
I've also published it as a tiny NuGet package, so you can just do:
Install-Package NaturalSort.Extension
The code including XML documentation comments and suite of tests is available in the NaturalSort.Extension GitHub repository.
The entire code is this (if you cannot use C# 7 yet, just install the NuGet package):
public static class StringComparerNaturalSortExtension
{
public static IComparer<string> WithNaturalSort(this StringComparer stringComparer) => new NaturalSortComparer(stringComparer);
private class NaturalSortComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public NaturalSortComparer(StringComparer stringComparer)
{
_stringComparer = stringComparer;
}
private readonly StringComparer _stringComparer;
private static readonly Regex NumberSequenceRegex = new Regex(#"(\d+)", RegexOptions.Compiled | RegexOptions.CultureInvariant);
private static string[] Tokenize(string s) => s == null ? new string[] { } : NumberSequenceRegex.Split(s);
private static ulong ParseNumberOrZero(string s) => ulong.TryParse(s, NumberStyles.None, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, out var result) ? result : 0;
public int Compare(string s1, string s2)
{
var tokens1 = Tokenize(s1);
var tokens2 = Tokenize(s2);
var zipCompare = tokens1.Zip(tokens2, TokenCompare).FirstOrDefault(x => x != 0);
if (zipCompare != 0)
return zipCompare;
var lengthCompare = tokens1.Length.CompareTo(tokens2.Length);
return lengthCompare;
}
private int TokenCompare(string token1, string token2)
{
var number1 = ParseNumberOrZero(token1);
var number2 = ParseNumberOrZero(token2);
var numberCompare = number1.CompareTo(number2);
if (numberCompare != 0)
return numberCompare;
var stringCompare = _stringComparer.Compare(token1, token2);
return stringCompare;
}
}
}

Inspired by Michael Parker's solution, here is an IComparer implementation that you can drop in to any of the linq ordering methods:
private class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public int Compare(string left, string right)
{
int max = new[] { left, right }
.SelectMany(x => Regex.Matches(x, #"\d+").Cast<Match>().Select(y => (int?)y.Value.Length))
.Max() ?? 0;
var leftPadded = Regex.Replace(left, #"\d+", m => m.Value.PadLeft(max, '0'));
var rightPadded = Regex.Replace(right, #"\d+", m => m.Value.PadLeft(max, '0'));
return string.Compare(leftPadded, rightPadded);
}
}

Here is a naive one-line regex-less LINQ way (borrowed from python):
var alphaStrings = new List<string>() { "10","2","3","4","50","11","100","a12","b12" };
var orderedString = alphaStrings.OrderBy(g => new Tuple<int, string>(g.ToCharArray().All(char.IsDigit)? int.Parse(g) : int.MaxValue, g));
// Order Now: ["2","3","4","10","11","50","100","a12","b12"]

Expanding on a couple of the previous answers and making use of extension methods, I came up with the following that doesn't have the caveats of potential multiple enumerable enumeration, or performance issues concerned with using multiple regex objects, or calling regex needlessly, that being said, it does use ToList(), which can negate the benefits in larger collections.
The selector supports generic typing to allow any delegate to be assigned, the elements in the source collection are mutated by the selector, then converted to strings with ToString().
private static readonly Regex _NaturalOrderExpr = new Regex(#"\d+", RegexOptions.Compiled);
public static IEnumerable<TSource> OrderByNatural<TSource, TKey>(
this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> selector)
{
int max = 0;
var selection = source.Select(
o =>
{
var v = selector(o);
var s = v != null ? v.ToString() : String.Empty;
if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s))
{
var mc = _NaturalOrderExpr.Matches(s);
if (mc.Count > 0)
{
max = Math.Max(max, mc.Cast<Match>().Max(m => m.Value.Length));
}
}
return new
{
Key = o,
Value = s
};
}).ToList();
return
selection.OrderBy(
o =>
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(o.Value) ? o.Value : _NaturalOrderExpr.Replace(o.Value, m => m.Value.PadLeft(max, '0')))
.Select(o => o.Key);
}
public static IEnumerable<TSource> OrderByDescendingNatural<TSource, TKey>(
this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> selector)
{
int max = 0;
var selection = source.Select(
o =>
{
var v = selector(o);
var s = v != null ? v.ToString() : String.Empty;
if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(s))
{
var mc = _NaturalOrderExpr.Matches(s);
if (mc.Count > 0)
{
max = Math.Max(max, mc.Cast<Match>().Max(m => m.Value.Length));
}
}
return new
{
Key = o,
Value = s
};
}).ToList();
return
selection.OrderByDescending(
o =>
String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(o.Value) ? o.Value : _NaturalOrderExpr.Replace(o.Value, m => m.Value.PadLeft(max, '0')))
.Select(o => o.Key);
}

A version that's easier to read/maintain.
public class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer<string>
{
public static NaturalStringComparer Instance { get; } = new NaturalStringComparer();
public int Compare(string x, string y) {
const int LeftIsSmaller = -1;
const int RightIsSmaller = 1;
const int Equal = 0;
var leftString = x;
var rightString = y;
var stringComparer = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.CompareInfo;
int rightIndex;
int leftIndex;
for (leftIndex = 0, rightIndex = 0;
leftIndex < leftString.Length && rightIndex < rightString.Length;
leftIndex++, rightIndex++) {
var leftChar = leftString[leftIndex];
var rightChar = rightString[leftIndex];
var leftIsNumber = char.IsNumber(leftChar);
var rightIsNumber = char.IsNumber(rightChar);
if (!leftIsNumber && !rightIsNumber) {
var result = stringComparer.Compare(leftString, leftIndex, 1, rightString, leftIndex, 1);
if (result != 0) return result;
} else if (leftIsNumber && !rightIsNumber) {
return LeftIsSmaller;
} else if (!leftIsNumber && rightIsNumber) {
return RightIsSmaller;
} else {
var leftNumberLength = NumberLength(leftString, leftIndex, out var leftNumber);
var rightNumberLength = NumberLength(rightString, rightIndex, out var rightNumber);
if (leftNumberLength < rightNumberLength) {
return LeftIsSmaller;
} else if (leftNumberLength > rightNumberLength) {
return RightIsSmaller;
} else {
if(leftNumber < rightNumber) {
return LeftIsSmaller;
} else if(leftNumber > rightNumber) {
return RightIsSmaller;
}
}
}
}
if (leftString.Length < rightString.Length) {
return LeftIsSmaller;
} else if(leftString.Length > rightString.Length) {
return RightIsSmaller;
}
return Equal;
}
public int NumberLength(string str, int offset, out int number) {
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str)) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(str));
if (offset >= str.Length) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(offset), offset, "Offset must be less than the length of the string.");
var currentOffset = offset;
var curChar = str[currentOffset];
if (!char.IsNumber(curChar))
throw new ArgumentException($"'{curChar}' is not a number.", nameof(offset));
int length = 1;
var numberString = string.Empty;
for (currentOffset = offset + 1;
currentOffset < str.Length;
currentOffset++, length++) {
curChar = str[currentOffset];
numberString += curChar;
if (!char.IsNumber(curChar)) {
number = int.Parse(numberString);
return length;
}
}
number = int.Parse(numberString);
return length;
}
}

We had a need for a natural sort to deal with text with the following pattern:
"Test 1-1-1 something"
"Test 1-2-3 something"
...
For some reason when I first looked on SO, I didn't find this post and implemented our own. Compared to some of the solutions presented here, while similar in concept, it could have the benefit of maybe being simpler and easier to understand. However, while I did try to look at performance bottlenecks, It is still a much slower implementation than the default OrderBy().
Here is the extension method I implement:
public static class EnumerableExtensions
{
// set up the regex parser once and for all
private static readonly Regex Regex = new Regex(#"\d+|\D+", RegexOptions.Compiled | RegexOptions.Singleline);
// stateless comparer can be built once
private static readonly AggregateComparer Comparer = new AggregateComparer();
public static IEnumerable<T> OrderByNatural<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, string> selector)
{
// first extract string from object using selector
// then extract digit and non-digit groups
Func<T, IEnumerable<IComparable>> splitter =
s => Regex.Matches(selector(s))
.Cast<Match>()
.Select(m => Char.IsDigit(m.Value[0]) ? (IComparable) int.Parse(m.Value) : m.Value);
return source.OrderBy(splitter, Comparer);
}
/// <summary>
/// This comparer will compare two lists of objects against each other
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>Objects in each list are compare to their corresponding elements in the other
/// list until a difference is found.</remarks>
private class AggregateComparer : IComparer<IEnumerable<IComparable>>
{
public int Compare(IEnumerable<IComparable> x, IEnumerable<IComparable> y)
{
return
x.Zip(y, (a, b) => new {a, b}) // walk both lists
.Select(pair => pair.a.CompareTo(pair.b)) // compare each object
.FirstOrDefault(result => result != 0); // until a difference is found
}
}
}
The idea is to split the original strings into blocks of digits and non-digits ("\d+|\D+"). Since this is a potentially expensive task, it is done only once per entry. We then use a comparer of comparable objects (sorry, I can't find a more proper way to say it). It compares each block to its corresponding block in the other string.
I would like feedback on how this could be improved and what the major flaws are. Note that maintainability is important to us at this point and we are not currently using this in extremely large data sets.

Let me explain my problem and how i was able to solve it.
Problem:- Sort files based on FileName from FileInfo objects which are retrieved from a Directory.
Solution:- I selected the file names from FileInfo and trimed the ".png" part of the file name. Now, just do List.Sort(), which sorts the filenames in Natural sorting order. Based on my testing i found that having .png messes up sorting order. Have a look at the below code
var imageNameList = new DirectoryInfo(#"C:\Temp\Images").GetFiles("*.png").Select(x =>x.Name.Substring(0, x.Name.Length - 4)).ToList();
imageNameList.Sort();