How to sort files in linux by number?

Question

My program reads in the number parsed from the file name. I want it to be ordered exactly how it is, but, in this example, list as 500, 4000, 7000. How should my naming convention look to achieve this? That is, when I have incrementing numbers, it lists it from smallest to highest.

What I really want is for it to sort by rank, (which here starts at zero), then sorts it by the incrementing numbers.. 500, 5000, 7000.

DESIRED OUTPUT

LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-7000.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-7000.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-7000.txt

Relevant Code

for filenamelogs in sorted(os.listdir(log_directory)):
            for each_line in filenamelogs:
                   #various file parsing activity

I'm appending the data file-by-file to various arrays. Unfortunately, this is terrible to me if I can't sort the file reads in the order requested. Maybe my question is veered toward developing a custom method to read in files under the sorting constraints I provide.

Answer 1

From a comment on a blog linked in a blog:

>>> import re
>>> def sort_nicely(l):
...     """
...     Sort the given list in the way that humans expect. Modifies the original list.
...     """
...     convert = lambda text: int(text) if text.isdigit() else text
...     alphanum_key = lambda key: [convert(c) for c in re.split('([0-9]+)', key)]
...     l.sort(key=alphanum_key)
...
>>> mylist = ['LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-500.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-4000.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-7000.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-500.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-4000.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-7000.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-500.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-4000.txt',
... 'LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-7000.txt']
>>> sort_nicely(mylist)
>>> print(*mylist, sep='\n')
LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-0-die-10-delay-7000.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-1-die-10-delay-7000.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-500.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-4000.txt
LOG-rank-2-die-10-delay-7000.txt

To return a new, sorted list instead of modifying the original one in place:

>>> def sort_nicely(l):
...     """
...     Sort the given list in the way that humans expect. Returns a new list.
...     """
...     convert = lambda text: int(text) if text.isdigit() else text
...     alphanum_key = lambda key: [convert(c) for c in re.split('([0-9]+)', key)]
...     return sorted(l, key=alphanum_key)
...
>>> newlist = sort_nicely(mylist)
>>> print(*newlist, sep='\n')