sorting of strings containing numbers

README.md

adapted from https://robinmalfait.com/blog/natural-sorting-of-strings-containing-numbers

fixed an issue where foo_1_bar would come after foo_14_bar by consuming numbers before the continue

usage:

import { compare } from './compare.js'

const list = [
	// ...
]

const sortedList = list.toSorted(compare)

compare.js

/** @param {number} c charCode */
const isNumber = (c) => c > 47 && c < 58 // digits 0 - 9 have codes 48 to 57

/**
 * @param {string} a
 * @param {string} b
 */
export function compare(a, b) {
	const minLen = Math.min(a.length, b.length)

	for (let i = 0; i < minLen; ++i) {
		const aCode = a.charCodeAt(i)
		const bCode = b.charCodeAt(i)

		// both are numbers, extract and compare as numbers
		if (isNumber(aCode) && isNumber(bCode)) {
			let aEnd = i + 1
			let bEnd = i + 1

			// find the end of the number
			while (isNumber(a.charCodeAt(aEnd))) ++aEnd
			while (isNumber(b.charCodeAt(bEnd))) ++bEnd

			return Number(a.slice(i, aEnd)) - Number(b.slice(i, bEnd))
		}

		// same char, continue checking along the string
		if (aCode === bCode) continue

		// otherwise, compare the character codes directly
		return aCode - bCode
	}

	// same prefix, shorter string should come first
	return a.length - b.length
}