sort_nat: Natural Order Sort

Sort strings in natural order.
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Updated Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:44:03 +0000

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Natural order sorting sorts strings containing digits in a way such that the numerical value of the digits is taken into account. It is especially useful for sorting file names containing index numbers with different numbers of digits. Often, people will use leading zeros to get the right sort order, but with this function you don't have to do that. For example, with input of

{'file1.txt','file2.txt','file10.txt'}

a normal sort will give you

{'file1.txt','file10.txt','file2.txt'}

whereas, sort_nat will give you

{'file1.txt','file2.txt','file10.txt'}

Cite As

Douglas Schwarz (2024). sort_nat: Natural Order Sort (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/10959-sort_nat-natural-order-sort), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R14SP2
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
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Version Published Release Notes
1.3.0.0

Fixed bug identified by Evgeny Pr. (Thanks!)

1.2.0.0

Added ability to sort in descending order.

1.1.0.0

Steve Herman identified an obscure bug (sorting a cell array of one string which has no numeric characters) which has now been fixed. Thank you Steve!

1.0.0.0

Fixed ambiguity of sort order in certain cases e.g., {'a0','a00'}. Increased speed. Relaxed MATLAB version requirements -- no longer requires R2006a, should work with much older versions now.