Question

Consider this code:

 var files = Directory.GetFiles(filePath);
 var dataFiles = from file in files
                 where System.IO.Path.GetExtension(file) == extension 
                 orderby file.Length
                 select file;

I’ve been looking for a string comparator that will do “natural sort”. Sadly, there is no build-in functionality for this common task. I found this post and it looks good.

Can I use NaturalStringComparer with LINQ query syntax? I am aware of the solution with lambdas.

Answer 1

Unfortunately this is not possible since the overload of OrderBy with a custom comparer is not supported in query syntax – only method syntax makes it accessible:

var comparer = new NaturalStringComparer();
var dataFiles = files.Where(f => System.IO.Path.GetExtension(f) == extension)
                     .OrderBy(f => f, comparer);