Sorting strings numerically

[MattP]

Here's a comparer I wrote awhile back to implement natural sorting like Windows uses.

If you'd rather use the shell api to do it you can implement it like this:

Public Class Form1
 
    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim itemList As New List(Of String) From {"item_1", "item_2", "item_4", "item_10", "item_8", "item_11"}
        itemList.Sort(New NaturalComparerUsingAPI(False))
    End Sub
 
End Class
 
Public Class NaturalComparerUsingAPI
    Implements IComparer(Of String)
 
    Private Declare Unicode Function StrCmpLogicalW Lib "shlwapi.dll" (s1 As String, s2 As String) As Integer
 
    Private ReadOnly _order As Integer
 
    Public Sub New(Optional Ascending As Boolean = True)
        _order = If(Ascending, 1, -1)
    End Sub
 
    Public Function Compare(x As String, y As String) As Integer Implements IComparer(Of String).Compare
        Return StrCmpLogicalW(x, y) * _order
    End Function
 
End Class