Question

Let’s say I’ve sorted a list of files in Explorer by name, like so:

2009-06-02-4.0.9.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.10.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.11.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.12.txt

I have a FileInfo Comparer that sorts an array of FileInfo objects by name:

    class FileInfoComparer : IComparer<FileInfo> {
        public int Compare(FileInfo x, FileInfo y) {
            return string.Compare(x.FullName, 
                                  y.FullName, 
                                  StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
        }
    }

Sorting that same list of files from above using this Comparer yields:

2009-06-02-4.0.10.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.11.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.12.txt
2009-06-02-4.0.9.txt

which is problematic, as the order is extremely important.

I would imagine there’s a way to mimic what Windows is doing in C# code, but I have yet to find a way. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Windows Explorer uses an API called:

StrCmpLogicalW

to perform the sort in a “logical” manner.

Someone has also implemented a class in C# which will do this for you.