How to sort by file name the same way Windows Explorer does?

by

TL;DR

Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object { [regex]::Replace($_.Name, '\d+', { $args[0].Value.PadLeft(20) }) }

Here is some very short code (just the $ToNatural script block) that does the trick with a regular expression and a match evaluator in order to pad the numbers with spaces. Then we sort the input with padded numbers as usual and actually get natural order as a result.

$ToNatural = { [regex]::Replace($_, '\d+', { $args[0].Value.PadLeft(20) }) }

'----- test 1 ASCIIbetical order'
Get-Content list.txt | Sort-Object

'----- test 2 input with padded numbers'
Get-Content list.txt | %{ . $ToNatural }

'----- test 3 Natural order: sorted with padded numbers'
Get-Content list.txt | Sort-Object $ToNatural

Output:

----- test 1 ASCIIbetical order
1.txt
10.txt
3.txt
a10b1.txt
a1b1.txt
a2b1.txt
a2b11.txt
a2b2.txt
b1.txt
b10.txt
b2.txt
----- test 2 input with padded numbers
                   1.txt
                  10.txt
                   3.txt
a                  10b                   1.txt
a                   1b                   1.txt
a                   2b                   1.txt
a                   2b                  11.txt
a                   2b                   2.txt
b                   1.txt
b                  10.txt
b                   2.txt
----- test 3 Natural order: sorted with padded numbers
1.txt
3.txt
10.txt
a1b1.txt
a2b1.txt
a2b2.txt
a2b11.txt
a10b1.txt
b1.txt
b2.txt
b10.txt

And finally we use this one-liner to sort files by names in natural order:

Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object { [regex]::Replace($_.Name, '\d+', { $args[0].Value.PadLeft(20) }) }

Output:

    Directory: C:\TEMP\_110325_063356

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name                                                                                                                  
----                -------------     ------ ----                                                                                                                  
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 1.txt                                                                                                                 
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 3.txt                                                                                                                 
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 10.txt                                                                                                                
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 a1b1.txt                                                                                                              
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 a2b1.txt                                                                                                              
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 a2b2.txt                                                                                                              
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 a2b11.txt                                                                                                             
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 a10b1.txt                                                                                                             
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 b1.txt                                                                                                                
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 b2.txt                                                                                                                
-a---        2011-03-25     06:34          8 b10.txt                                                                                                               
-a---        2011-03-25     04:54         99 list.txt                                                                                                              
-a---        2011-03-25     06:05        346 sort-natural.ps1                                                                                                      
-a---        2011-03-25     06:35         96 test.ps1

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