May I have some help understanding the intricacies of the List. Sort Methods?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to sort a list of strings that I have. The default comparer is doing something fun with the file names, though it totally makes sense. My list is a list of file names that come out of a folder in this order:

8_1-MDX 501
9_1-MDX 501
10_1-MDX 501
11_-MDX 501
12_1-MDX 501

And it's outputting them in this order:

10_1-MDX 501
11_1-MDX 501
12_1-MDX 501
8_-MDX 501
9_1-MDX 501

I get why it wants to do that, but the List. Sort methods are a bit confusing and I'm brand new to this. Thanks for any help I can get, and if someone wants to knock me for not understanding delegates well enough, I completely understand. Thanks!

That's not strictly related to List.Sort, that's just how strings are compared. How do you want them sorted? — Etienne de Martel, Jan 16 '21 at 21:25
No, windows explorer filename sorting is smarter than you realize. String "9" is greater than string "11" but windows specifically looks for numbers and treats them numerically rather than as strings, on filenames for sorting purposes — Caius Jard, Jan 16 '21 at 23:31

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '21 at 21:26

-1

Default string comparer take chars one by one and compare its number representation, first difference is returned or 0 if all chars are the same.

answered Jan 16 '21 at 21:26

Leszek Mazur

2,443
1
14
28

May I have some help understanding the intricacies of the List. Sort Methods?

1 Answers1