TL;DR

Instead of sorting numbers in ASCII order like Java"s "Natural Order" (Lexicographic), this Natural Order sorts numbers in an ordering of strings in alphabetical order, except that multi-digit numbers are treated atomically, i.e., as if they were a single character.

Inspired by javascript-natural-sort.

Features	Status
Numeric	✅
Float	✅
Float & decimal notation	✅
Scientific notation	✅
Barcode	✅
IP addresses	✅
Filenames	✅
Dates sorting	❌
Money	✅
Movie Titles	✅
Padded zeros' numbers come first	✅
Case-sensitive/insensitive sorting	✅
Reverse	✅

Run time

Amount of items	1000	10000	100000	1000000	10000000
Java Int[]	0ms	1ms	5ms	84ms	748ms
Java String[]	1ms	15ms	112ms	524ms	7124ms
Natural Sort String[]	90ms	110ms	428ms	4256ms	42638ms

Usage

Initiate and use:

Comparator<String> sensitiveComparator = new NASort(false);
String[] arr1 = new String[] { "A", "C", "E", "b", "d", "f" };
Arrays.sort(arr1, sensitiveComparator);

To change case sensitivity:

Comparator<String> sensitiveComparator = new NASort(true);
Comparator<String> insensitiveComparator = new NASort(false);

Examples

Find more in the unit test.

Simple numerics

{ "10", "9", "2", "1", "4" } -> { "1", "2", "4", "9","10" }

Floats

{ "10.0401", "10.022", "10.042", "10.021999" } -> { "10.021999", "10.022", "10.0401", "10.042" }

Float & decimal notation

{ "10.04f","10.039F","10.038d","10.037D" } -> { "10.037D","10.038d","10.039F","10.04f" }

Scientific notation

{ "1.528535047e5","1.528535047e7","1.528535047e3" } -> { "1.528535047e3","1.528535047e5","1.528535047e7" }

Barcode

{ "2320-01-371-9577", "4567-45-418-4713", "7894-88-153-1456", "2320-45-418-4713", "7894-88-153-4713", "7894-88-153-4713", "1000-00-000-0000", "1000-01-000-0000", "1000-00-000-0001", "1000-00-000-0010", "1000-00-010-0000" }
->
{ "1000-00-000-0000", "1000-00-000-0001", "1000-00-000-0010", "1000-00-010-0000", "1000-01-000-0000", "2320-01-371-9577", "2320-45-418-4713", "4567-45-418-4713", "7894-88-153-1456", "7894-88-153-4713", "7894-88-153-4713" }

IP addresses

{ "192.168.0.100","192.168.0.1","192.168.1.1" } -> { "192.168.0.1","192.168.0.100","192.168.1.1" }

Filenames

{ "car.mov","01alpha.sgi","001alpha.sgi","my.string_41299.tif" } -> { "001alpha.sgi","01alpha.sgi","car.mov","my.string_41299.tif"

Dates

{ "10/12/2008","10/11/2008","10/11/2007","10/12/2007" } -> { "10/11/2007", "10/12/2007", "10/11/2008", "10/12/2008" }

Money

{ "$10002.00","$10001.02","$10001.01" } -> { "$10001.01","$10001.02","$10002.00" }

Movie Titles

{ "1 Title - The Big Lebowski","1 Title - Gattaca","1 Title - Last Picture Show" } -> { "1 Title - Gattaca","1 Title - Last Picture Show","1 Title - The Big Lebowski" }

Padded Zeros

{ "0001", "002", "001", "1" } -> { "0001", "001", "1", "002" }

Case Sensitive

{ "A", "b", "C", "d", "E", "f" } -> { "A", "C", "E", "b", "d", "f" }

Reverse

{ "10.0401", "10.022", "10.042", "10.021999" } -> { "10.042", "10.0401", "10.022", "10.021999" }
{ "-1", "-2", "4", "-3", "0", "-5" } -> { "4", "0", "-1", "-2", "-3", "-5" }