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I want to order some simple list of strings, such as

name = {"1.62-s", "1.6-s", "1.63-s", "1.75-s", "1.70-s"}
name//TableForm
1.62-s
1.63-s
1.6-s
1.70-s
1.75-s

However, because of the following letter "-s" I cannot order the list. Any good way to order this instead of doing by manually?

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4 Answers 4

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order = Ordering @ ToExpression[First @ StringSplit[#, "-"] & /@ name]

{2, 1, 3, 5, 4}

name[[order]]

{"1.6-s", "1.62-s", "1.63-s", "1.70-s", "1.75-s"}

EDIT: I changed StringSplit into First @ StringSplit due to important comments of george2079: (1), (2), (3) below.

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  • $\begingroup$ THank you so much! I end of using your code for the project! $\endgroup$
    – Saesun Kim
    Sep 30, 2016 at 19:34
  • $\begingroup$ watch, this has the same issue I noted under Bob's answer. You are applying ToExpression to the "s", so there could be unexpected results if s is a defined symbol. ( you could do First@StringSplit[#, "-"] to fix that ) $\endgroup$
    – george2079
    Sep 30, 2016 at 20:08
  • $\begingroup$ @george2079 Yes, now I see it. But do you have in mind any situation that this will actually fail? Nevertheless, First@stringSplit is ofc better. $\endgroup$
    – corey979
    Sep 30, 2016 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ as an example do s := Pause[1] and you'll see your sort take 5 seconds. Even though that scenaro might seem unlikely its the sort of thing that's hard to track down if it causes a problem. $\endgroup$
    – george2079
    Sep 30, 2016 at 20:25
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this sorts by numeric value:

SortBy[name, 
 ToExpression@StringCases[#, n : NumberString ~~ ___ :> n] &]

{"1.6-s", "1.62-s", "1.63-s", "1.70-s", "1.75-s"}

note in some cases the numeric sorting is different from the string sort:

name = {"16.2-s", "1.6-s", "1.63-s", "1.75-s", "1.70-s"};
SortBy[name, StringTake[#, {1, -3}] &]

{"1.6-s", "16.2-s", "1.63-s", "1.70-s", "1.75-s"}

SortBy[name, 
 ToExpression@StringCases[#, n : NumberString ~~ ___ :> n] &]

{"1.6-s", "1.63-s", "1.70-s", "1.75-s", "16.2-s"}

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for the code, even though I used @Corey's code, your code help me to understand more. I appreciate your answer! $\endgroup$
    – Saesun Kim
    Sep 30, 2016 at 19:38
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SortBy[name, StringTake[#, {1, -3}] &]
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    $\begingroup$ As @george2079 points out, you may want to add ToExpression@ into the mix (before StringTake) to make the numerical sorting a little more robust. I was being lazy. $\endgroup$
    – Quantum_Oli
    Sep 30, 2016 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for your fast answer! This was the what I wanted, but there were some generalized answer for any case, so I did not accept yours. However, I appreciate for your code! $\endgroup$
    – Saesun Kim
    Sep 30, 2016 at 19:40
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name = {"1.62-s", "1.6-s", "1.63-s", "1.75-s", "1.70-s"};

SortBy[name, ToExpression]

(*  {"1.6-s", "1.62-s", "1.63-s", "1.70-s", "1.75-s"}  *)
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  • $\begingroup$ watch for unexpected side effects should you happen to have a defined symbol "s" .. $\endgroup$
    – george2079
    Sep 30, 2016 at 19:18
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, I think your code is the neatest one, but I used @Corey code for the project. Thank you anyway :D $\endgroup$
    – Saesun Kim
    Sep 30, 2016 at 19:34

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