Sorting files according to the length of filename

Question

Can I sort files according to the length of filename?

Solution 1

Output the contents of a folder, sorted by file name length using PowerShell:

 gci c:\anyfolder | select-object name, @{Name="Nlength";Expression={$_.Name.Length}} | sort-object Nlength

It'll output something like this:

Name                     Nlength
----                     -------
DL.mdb                         6
trolol.txt                    10
AAAAA-2011-03-23-111.xls      24

Solution 2

Since you haven't specified a preferred method, here is a solution in Perl:

#!C:/Perl/bin/perl.exe
use strict;
use warnings;

my @a;

opendir(my $dir, ".") or die $!;
while(readdir $dir) {
    push @a, $_;
}
closedir $dir;

@a = sort { length($a) <=> length($b) } @a;

foreach(@a)
{
    print "$_\n" if -f;
}

output:

p.pl
p.php
lwp.pl
test.bat
index.htm
index.php
readnsort.pl
scrape_parse.txt

Solution 3

Using PowerShell:

# example 1
Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object { $_.Name.Length }
# example 2
ls | sort { $_.Name.Length }

https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/sort-object

Solution 4

I realize I am a bit late to the party, but yes you can, in Windows at least! See FreeCommander (https://freecommander.com/en/summary/), a dual-pane file browser / manager with so many great features I can't even list them all. Do you miss the clarity and speed of Windows XP file search? Try CTRL-F in any directory using FreeCommander. Losing your marbles drilling down into overly-complex file structures over and over again? Try creating favourites shortcuts to frequently used directories (local and network). Working with too many directories at once? Both panes are fully tabbed to allow quick switching. Compare directory contents with a click? Check. Free for both personal and commercial use? Check. Did I mention there's a portable version too? (https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/freecommander_portable)

The salient feature for your question, however, is the ability to modify the viewed columns to include one called "Length of the path". This provides a numeric column representing the length of the filename plus the length of the path to the filename (so this would be a constant in the same directory). Sort by this column and you have sorted by filename length!

This is an essential program for Windows, IMHO, and one to which I am more than happy to donate. Marek has done an incredible job developing, updating and maintaining this application, and I applaud him.

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Comments

[Dzung Nguyen]

you should provide your platform ?

[John T]

@nXqd see tags.

[user1686]

You can use readdir() in a list context - the while loop is unnecessary. (Spaghetti Perl mode: $\ = "\n"; print if -f for sort {length($a) <=> length($b)} readdir $dir;)

[CheeseCrustery]

How does this work? I can't really comprehend what you're doing here