Sort lists numerically by treating values as numbers

Summary

The nsort macro combines one or more lists and sorts their contents numerically. Unlike alphabetic sorting, it treats values as numbers, so “2” comes before “10”.

Syntax 

${nsort;<list>[;<list>...]}

Parameters

  • list - One or more semicolon-separated lists to sort (items within lists are comma-separated)

Behavior

  • Combines all provided lists into a single list
  • Strips leading zeros from values for comparison
  • Sorts primarily by numeric length (shorter numbers first)
  • For values of equal length, sorts lexicographically
  • Returns a comma-separated sorted list

Examples

Sort numbers correctly:

${nsort;10,2,1,20,3}
# Returns: "1,2,3,10,20" (not "1,10,2,20,3")

Sort with leading zeros:

${nsort;001,010,002,100}
# Returns: "1,2,10,100" (leading zeros removed)

Combine and sort multiple lists:

${nsort;5,15,25;10,20,30}
# Returns: "5,10,15,20,25,30"

Sort version-like numbers:

${nsort;1,11,2,21,3}
# Returns: "1,2,3,11,21"

Use Cases

  • Sorting version numbers or identifiers
  • Ordering numeric strings correctly
  • Sorting file numbers or indices
  • Version lists in proper numeric order
  • Port numbers or numeric identifiers
  • Any list where numeric order matters

Notes

  • Sorts by length first, then lexicographically
  • Leading zeros are stripped before comparison
  • All values are treated as strings during comparison
  • Shorter numbers always come before longer numbers
  • For equal-length values, uses string comparison
  • See also: ${sort} for alphabetic sorting
  • See also: ${vcompare} for semantic version comparison

See test cases in MacroTestsForDocsExamples.java