from __future__ import annotations import re def natural_sort(input_list: list[str]) -> list[str]: """ Sort the given list of strings in the way that humans expect. The normal Python sort algorithm sorts lexicographically, so you might not get the results that you expect... >>> example1 = ['2 ft 7 in', '1 ft 5 in', '10 ft 2 in', '2 ft 11 in', '7 ft 6 in'] >>> sorted(example1) ['1 ft 5 in', '10 ft 2 in', '2 ft 11 in', '2 ft 7 in', '7 ft 6 in'] >>> # The natural sort algorithm sort based on meaning and not computer code point. >>> natural_sort(example1) ['1 ft 5 in', '2 ft 7 in', '2 ft 11 in', '7 ft 6 in', '10 ft 2 in'] >>> example2 = ['Elm11', 'Elm12', 'Elm2', 'elm0', 'elm1', 'elm10', 'elm13', 'elm9'] >>> sorted(example2) ['Elm11', 'Elm12', 'Elm2', 'elm0', 'elm1', 'elm10', 'elm13', 'elm9'] >>> natural_sort(example2) ['elm0', 'elm1', 'Elm2', 'elm9', 'elm10', 'Elm11', 'Elm12', 'elm13'] """ def alphanum_key(key): return [int(s) if s.isdigit() else s.lower() for s in re.split("([0-9]+)", key)] return sorted(input_list, key=alphanum_key) if __name__ == "__main__": import doctest doctest.testmod()