Why is os.listdir() Not Always Sorted Alphabetically?

Non-Alphanumeric Order in os.listdir() Results

When using Python's os.listdir() function to retrieve a list of directories within the current working directory, users have encountered an unexpected non-alphanumeric sorting of the results. This is in contrast to the previous behavior, which maintained an alphanumeric order.

Explaining the (Displayed) Order

The order displayed by os.listdir() is influenced by your filesystem's internal organization and may vary across platforms. Therefore, the default ordering cannot be relied upon.

Solution: Sorting the Directory List

To obtain a specific order for the list of directories, you can use Python's built-in sorting mechanisms.

• Using sorted():

sorted_directories = sorted(os.listdir(os.getcwd()))

This will create a new list with the directories sorted in ascending alphabetical order.

• Using the sort() Method:

directories = os.listdir(os.getcwd())
directories.sort()

The sort() method in-place sorts the existing directory list.

Note on Filesystem Independence

It's important to remember that the order retrieved by os.listdir() is largely determined by the underlying filesystem's organization. This means that the order may differ when using different filesystems or operating systems.

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