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Finder now has intelligent numeric sorting Desktop
I was goofing around in the Finder the other day and I found an unadvertised feature that I've been waiting for for years.

Finally the Finder realizes that 10 is a higher number that 2. In the past, I've has to add a leading zero to all my files that started with a single digit, but now the Finder is smart enough to sort lists of files so that single digit characters come first. Hooray!

[Editor's note: Anyone out there using 10.1 who can test this? I think it's new in Jaguar (and very very welcome!).]
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Finder now has intelligent numeric sorting | 11 comments | Create New Account
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Not new, it's in 10.1.5
Authored by: eo on Oct 02, '02 10:05:23AM

I just tested this under 10.1.5 so it's not new to Jaguar.



[ Reply to This | # ]
This worked in 10.0
Authored by: vgz on Oct 02, '02 10:47:39AM

Don't remember if the beta did this but 10.0 had this feature.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Since 10.1 something
Authored by: mrgerbek on Oct 02, '02 01:36:12PM

I noticed this back in early 10.1.x. Makes for great mp3 libraries.



[ Reply to This | # ]
but not 'too' intelligent
Authored by: asxless on Oct 02, '02 06:21:58PM

I agree that this more intelligent name sorting is very handy. But it is not consistently implemented. For example, if you drag a set of files named File 1...File 12 onto the icon of an empty closed folder the files are sorted alphabetically -- literally:( Of course you can then 'Sort by name' to fix the order.

asxless in iLand



[ Reply to This | # ]
NaturalOrder
Authored by: carsten on Oct 02, '02 07:07:10PM
I previously spoke with Stewart Cheshire who wrote the original and excellent NaturalOrder Extension for non- Mac OS X (See www.naturalordersort.org). He had the code added into OS X after the public beta was released, so 10.0 has it. The NaturalOrder sorting code works in Cocoa applications, the Finder and iTunes, but I'm not sure that it works in other carbon applications. At least it didn't in 10.1 but I haven't done tests with Jaguar yet.

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I wish it were optional
Authored by: jimhill on Oct 02, '02 10:03:42PM

Coming from a Unix background, I've long accepted lexicographic order as the One True Way and when I discovered OS X's arithmetic order, I ground my teeth and looked long and hard for a fix. Doesn't seem to be one, alas...

"Ball" comes before "Call" because "B" comes before "C".

"12" should come before "2" because "1" comes before "2".

Ratzlefratzle mutter stupid Apple...



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I wish it were optional
Authored by: dr_turgeon on Oct 02, '02 10:16:09PM

Agreed. This should be optional. Somebody out there know if we can hack some plist to toggle this behaviour?



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I wish it were optional
Authored by: Cowboy_X on Oct 08, '02 01:22:41AM

Perhaps it should be optional, but it should definitely be turned on by default. Like the whole case-sensitivity debate, it's fine to let advanced users configure their systems to their own preferences and working habits, but for normal and novice users the system should be simple, intelligent and predictable.



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This SHOULD BE Optional
Authored by: coachjs on Feb 20, '03 01:33:32AM

As an example compare how the same list of folders is sorted in the Finder and the Terminal - this is NOT intelligent sorting:


Folder list sorted correctly by OS X Terminal:
R0204302US
R0205312YS
R0206302YU
R02083121F
R02103122S
R02123123O
R03021426R
R03021829D
R03021929B
R7912312N8
R8912312OA
R9912312OC

Same Folder list sorted by OS X v10.2 Finder:
R02083121F
R02103122S
R02123123O
R03021426R
R03021829D
R03021929B
R7912312N8
R8912312OA
R9912312OC
R0204302US
R0205312YS
R0206302YU

What's up with that?!!



[ Reply to This | # ]
This SHOULD BE Optional
Authored by: urcindalo on Feb 20, '03 10:30:31AM

So, we actually have both ways of ordering.... ;-)

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urcindalo
Almería, SPAIN
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Dual G4/450, 2 Gb RAM, 20 Gb HD, DVD-RAM
ATI Radeon 32 Mb
Adaptec 2930U SCSI card
External USB/SCSI ORB drive



[ Reply to This | # ]
10.0
Authored by: globalnoamd on Oct 03, '02 04:04:01AM

This is not new.

Trust me i have done it when orrganising my T.V. episodes.

This feature was in 10.0



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