Why is my file array not in numeric order?

Question

var files = Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\Users\user\Downloads\CaptchaCollection\Small").OrderBy(name => name).ToArray();

for (int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
{
    MessageBox.Show(files[i].ToString());
}

So I was testing my files array with the message box but it seems like it's not giving the name in order.

My file names are n.png, where n is a number. There is no pattern since I deleted some images.

So here is the output so far:

Normally in ascending order manually I'd get something like:

1
2
4
5
7
...

How do I sort this array so that everything is in numeric order??

possible duplicate of Natural Sort Order in C#

Alexei Levenkov
– Alexei Levenkov

2014-01-25 01:18:41 +00:00
Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 1:18 — Alexei Levenkov
– Alexei Levenkov, Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 1:18

i3arnon · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-25 01:34:22Z

4

The list is ordered in alphabetical order. What you want is to order them as numbers. You can do that if they are numbers:

Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\Users\user\Downloads\CaptchaCollection\Small").
    Select(name => int.Parse(Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(name))).
    OrderBy(number => number).
    ToArray();

If you would want to filter out filenames that would not be a number while still using linq you could do this:

Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\Users\user\Downloads\CaptchaCollection\Small").
    Select(nameWithExtension => Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(nameWithExtension)).
    Where(name => {int number; return int.TryParse(name, out number);}).
    Select(name => int.Parse(name)).
    OrderBy(number => number).
    ToArray();

edited Jan 25, 2014 at 1:34

answered Jan 25, 2014 at 1:15

i3arnon

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1 Comment

puretppc Over a year ago

Thanks so much :) @Steve Thanks for pointing this out too in case I accidentally put some non-numerics there.

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