bill
msg:3767586 | 4:21 am on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
If you click the Name field at the top of a column in Windows Explorer that will toggle the sort order. It will sort alphabetically either ascending or descending order. This works for the other columns you choose to display as well.
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kaled
msg:3767772 | 10:48 am on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Take a look at this... [support.microsoft.com...] Kaled.
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jdkuehne
msg:3767880 | 1:26 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Thank you kaled - That was exactly what I was looking for!
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Robert Charlton
msg:3768217 | 7:20 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
kaled - Great reference. Thanks. To take this question a bit further, does anyone know what the sort order rules are for Macs? I occasionally encounter cross-platform issues when working with clients and suppliers who work on Macs, and it would be nice to know of potential sort order inconsistencies in advance. This seems a good place to ask.
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Robert Charlton
msg:3768223 | 7:32 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
A PS to comments above... I just noticed that the MS KB article suggests that XP and Vista should behave the same. The OP's question (and example) suggests that they don't. | The sort order that is used by Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 for files and folders whose names contain numerals differs from the sort order that is used by Windows 2000.... ...By default, the newer sort order considers strings in file and folder names as numeric content, not text. Numerals in folder and file names are sorted according to their numeric value. |
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travelin cat
msg:3768233 | 7:44 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
In Mac OSX, I get the following: Alphabetically:
52bbb
8674ccc
123456aaa Reverse Alpha:
123456aaa
8674ccc
52bbb When I add a letter to the beginning, I get: Alphabetically:
a52bbb
b123456aaa
c8674ccc Reverse Alpha:
c8674ccc
b123456aaa
a52bbb
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jdkuehne
msg:3768234 | 7:47 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Hi Robert Charlton - that was my error when I typed the original question. I was using Win2000 at work before upgrading to Vista, but at home I am on XP. Just force of habit to reference XP I guess.
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Robert Charlton
msg:3768329 | 10:20 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Thanks... So, what we have is that... when the filename begines with a number... XP, Vista, and Mac OSX are consistent with each other, and that they sort as MS describes in KB-319827, which kaled linked to above.... | By default, the newer sort order considers strings in file and folder names as numeric content, not text. Numerals in folder and file names are sorted according to their numeric value. |
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None of the examples quite covered all possibilities, including what happens in various apps, so I've run the following tests on XP, with some text .txt files. XP (which is to say, Windows Explorer) maintains the numerical values of numbers even when preceded by an alphabetical character). Some second party apps on XP change this order, treating numbers as alphabetical characers.... IN WINDOWS EXPLORER ON XP 85aa.txt
789aa.txt
12345aa.txt
abc.txt
cdf.txt
d85aa.txt
ghi.txt
x85aa.txt
x789aa.txt
x12345aa.txt IN SECOND-PARTY FILE MANAGER (TOTAL COMMANDER) ON XP 12345aa.txt
789aa.txt
85aa.txt
abc.txt
cdf.txt
d85aa.txt
ghi.txt
x12345aa.txt
x789aa.txt
x85aa.txt ALPHANUMERIC SORT IN TEXT EDITOR (NOTETAB PRO) 12345aa.txt
789aa.txt
85aa.txt
abc.txt
cdf.txt
d85aa.txt
ghi.txt
x12345aa.txt
x789aa.txt
x85aa.txt
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travelin cat
msg:3768337 | 10:36 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
On my Mac, when I label them all starting with the same letter, but with different numerals, I get this: Alphabetically: a52bbb
a8674ccc
a123456aaa
b52bbb
b8674ccc
b123456aaa and reversed: b123456aaa
b8674ccc
b52bbb
a123456aaa
a8674ccc
a52bbb Pretty interesting, I've never thought about this before...
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kaled
msg:3768353 | 11:13 pm on Oct 17, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I haven't studied this, but I think you will find that the filenames are effectively broken up into numeric strings and non-numeric strings. The numeric strings are then padded with leading zeros (to ten decimal places probably) and then recombined with the non-numeric strings. From that point onwards, normal string sorting rules will be applied. It might be interesting to try using numerics with decimal points since no padding should be applied to the fractional part. Kaled.
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