Non-alphanumeric list order from os.listdir()

Question

I often use python to process directories of data. Recently, I have noticed that the default order of the lists has changed to something almost nonsensical. For example, if I am in a current directory containing the following subdirectories: run01, run02, ... run19, run20, and then I generate a list from the following command:

dir = os.listdir(os.getcwd())

then I usually get a list in this order:

dir = ['run01', 'run18', 'run14', 'run13', 'run12', 'run11', 'run08', ... ]

and so on. The order used to be alphanumeric. But this new order has remained with me for a while now.

What is determining the (displayed) order of these lists?

Answer 1

Python for whatever reason does not come with a built-in way to have natural sorting (meaning 1, 2, 10 instead of 1, 10, 2), so you have to write it yourself:

import re
def sorted_aphanumeric(data):
    convert = lambda text: int(text) if text.isdigit() else text.lower()
    alphanum_key = lambda key: [ convert(c) for c in re.split('([0-9]+)', key) ] 
    return sorted(data, key=alphanum_key)

You can now use this function to sort a list:

dirlist = sorted_aphanumeric(os.listdir(...))

Answer 2

In [6]: os.listdir?

Type:       builtin_function_or_method
String Form:<built-in function listdir>
Docstring:
listdir(path) -> list_of_strings
Return a list containing the names of the entries in the directory.
path: path of directory to list
The list is in **arbitrary order**.  It does not include the special
entries '.' and '..' even if they are present in the directory.

Answer 3

The proposed combination of os.listdir and sorted commands generates the same result as ls -l command under Linux. The following example verifies this assumption:

user@user-PC:/tmp/test$ touch 3a 4a 5a b c d1 d2 d3 k l p0 p1 p3 q 410a 409a 408a 407a
user@user-PC:/tmp/test$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 3a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 407a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 408a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 409a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 410a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 4a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 5a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 b
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 c
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 d1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 d2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 d3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 k
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 p0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 p1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 p3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 0 Feb  15 10:31 q

user@user-PC:/tmp/test$ python
Python 2.7.6 (default, Jun 22 2015, 17:58:13) 
[GCC 4.8.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.listdir( './' )
['d3', 'k', 'p1', 'b', '410a', '5a', 'l', 'p0', '407a', '409a', '408a', 'd2', '4a', 'p3', '3a', 'q', 'c', 'd1']
>>> sorted( os.listdir( './' ) )
['3a', '407a', '408a', '409a', '410a', '4a', '5a', 'b', 'c', 'd1', 'd2', 'd3', 'k', 'l', 'p0', 'p1', 'p3', 'q']
>>> exit()
user@user-PC:/tmp/test$ 

So, for someone who wants to reproduce the result of the well-known ls -l command in his Python code, sorted( os.listdir( DIR ) ) works pretty well.

Answer 4

I think the order has to do with the way the files are indexed on your FileSystem. If you really want to make it adhere to some order you can always sort the list after getting the files.

Answer 5

Elliot's answer solves it perfectly but because it is a comment, it goes unnoticed so with the aim of helping someone, I am reiteration it as a solution.

Use natsort library:

Install the library with the following command for Ubuntu and other Debian versions

Python 2

sudo pip install natsort

Python 3

sudo pip3 install natsort

Details of how to use this library is found here

Answer 6

It's probably just the order that C's readdir() returns. Try running this C program:

#include <dirent.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{   DIR *dirp;
    struct dirent* de;
    dirp = opendir(".");
    while(de = readdir(dirp)) // Yes, one '='.
        printf("%s\n", de->d_name);
    closedir(dirp);
    return 0;
}

The build line should be something like gcc -o foo foo.c.

P.S. Just ran this and your Python code, and they both gave me sorted output, so I can't reproduce what you're seeing.