Natural Sort Order in C#

Question

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

Answer 1

A version that's easier to read/maintain.

public class NaturalStringComparer : IComparer
{
    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;
    }
}