Can't sort my list numerically for larger numbers than 10 e.g. 1,10,100,2

Question

I want my files names in real numerical order so 1,2,3,10,12. However it is currently putting them in order like so: 1,10,12,2,3

Input:

files = FileNames["*"]

SortBy [files, N]

Output:

{"10", "1007680", "1007690", "1007700", "1007710", "1007720", \
"1007730", "1007740", "1032540", "1032550", "1032560", "1032570", \
"1032580", "1032590", "1032600", "1032610", "11250", "11260", \
"11280", "11300", "134110", "134120", "134130", "134140", "134150", \
"20", "30", "301720", "301730", "301740", "301750", "301760", \
"38560", "38570", "38580", "38590", "38600", "40", "50", "60", \
"662830", "662840", "662850", "662860", "662870", "662880"}

There must be a simple way to do this that i have missed!

My main goal is that I want mathematica to do a set of operations on each file and plot the results in order of the file name. E.g. so that I can see a change from file 1 to file 1000000.

So my thinking is that I want the list to be like this:

{"10", "20", "30", "40", "50", "60", "3200", "5600", "10000" ...}

Then Mathematica will process and plot the files in the correct order.

That worked thank you! Why is it that SortBy could not do this? I'm still fairly new at this. However mathematica does not appear to be plotting the operations i do on my files in the correct order — David, Feb 13 '16 at 16:48
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Yep that is fantastic, Thank you! It didn't click that i was working with strings, my brain saw numbers and thought integers. I have realised i need to implement this ordering into my actual function to correctly import data from the files into a table in the order of the file name, how would i implement that into this: alldata = Table[Import[files[[i]], "TSV"], {i, 1, L}] (Where L is the length of the list files) — David, Feb 13 '16 at 17:04

Chris Degnen · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-13T17:15:39.977

2

a = {"10", "1007680", "1007690", "1007700", "1007710", "1007720",
   "1007730", "1007740", "1032540", "1032550", "1032560",
   "1032570", "1032580", "1032590", "1032600", "1032610",
   "11250", "11260", "11280", "11300", "134110", "134120",
   "134130", "134140", "134150", "20", "30", "301720", "301730",
   "301740", "301750", "301760", "38560", "38570", "38580",
   "38590", "38600", "40", "50", "60", "662830", "662840",
   "662850", "662860", "662870", "662880"};

ToString /@ Sort[ToExpression[a]]

or

SortBy[a, ToExpression]

Edit further to comment.

SetDirectory["Documents"];
filelist = FileNames[];
files = SortBy[filelist, ToExpression];
alldata = Map[Import[#, "TSV"] &, files];

edited Feb 13 '16 at 17:15

answered Feb 13 '16 at 16:47

Chris Degnen

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Thank you! I have realised i need to import the files in this order and i'm not sure how to do that my function is: alldata = Table[Import[files[[i]], "TSV"], {i, 1, L}] and this is importing them in the original order which is not what i want – David Feb 13 '16 at 17:07
@David I have added something that might work. – Chris Degnen Feb 13 '16 at 17:16
Thank you, it did work however i think it has cause my other operations to not work. What i think i will do is post a new question with all my code and a better explanation – David Feb 13 '16 at 17:31

Can't sort my list numerically for larger numbers than 10 e.g. 1,10,100,2

1 Answers1