Numeric before alpha sort in LINQ

Introduction

This will help sort a list of strings that has the numbers as the first word in numeric order.

Using the code

This is a code example, output and full compare class that shows how to use the string compare.

// Example
IList<string> cMovies = new List<string>();
cMovies.Add("2 Fast 2 Furious");
cMovies.Add("007 Casino Royale");
cMovies.Add("8 mm");
cMovies.Add("21 jump Street");
cMovies.Add("3:10 To Yuma");
cMovies.Add("40 Days And 40 Nights");
cMovies.Add("1408");
cMovies.Add("2012");
cMovies.Add("10.000 BC");

foreach (string cTitle in cMovies.OrderBy(t => t)) {
    Console.WriteLine(cTitle);
}
Console.WriteLine("-----");
foreach (string cTitle in cMovies.OrderBy(t => t, new NumeralAlphaCompare())) {
    Console.WriteLine(cTitle);
}

// Output
007 Casino Royale
10.000 BC
1408
2 Fast 2 Furious
2012
21 jump Street
3:10 To Yuma
40 Days And 40 Nights
8 mm
-----
2 Fast 2 Furious
3:10 To Yuma
007 Casino Royale
8 mm
21 jump Street
40 Days And 40 Nights
1408
2012
10.000 BC 

// Compare class
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class NumeralAlphaCompare : IComparer<string> {
    public int Compare(string x, string y) {
        int nIndexX = x.Replace(":", " ").IndexOf(" ");
        int nIndexY = y.Replace(":", " ").IndexOf(" ");
        bool bSpaceX = nIndexX > -1;
        bool bSpaceY = nIndexY > -1;

        long nX;
        long nY;
        if (bSpaceX && bSpaceY) {
            if (long.TryParse(x.Substring(0, nIndexX).Replace(".", ""), out nX)
                && long.TryParse(y.Substring(0, nIndexY).Replace(".", ""), out nY)) {
                if (nX < nY) {
                    return -1;
                }
                else if (nX > nY) {
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }
        else if (bSpaceX) {
            if (long.TryParse(x.Substring(0, nIndexX).Replace(".", ""), out nX)
                && long.TryParse(y, out nY)) {
                if (nX < nY) {
                    return -1;
                }
                else if (nX > nY) {
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }
        else if (bSpaceY) {
            if (long.TryParse(x, out nX)
                && long.TryParse(y.Substring(0, nIndexY).Replace(".", ""), out nY)) {
                if (nX < nY) {
                    return -1;
                }
                else if (nX > nY) {
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }
        else {
            if (long.TryParse(x, out nX)
                && long.TryParse(y, out nY)) {
                if (nX < nY) {
                    return -1;
                }
                else if (nX > nY) {
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }
        return x.CompareTo(y);
    }
}

Points of Interest

I hope you can use this little example to order strings as you wanted it to be sorted like windows sorts files in explorers.

History

No history since this is the first version.