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Avid Contributor I
May 7, 2021
Answered

imported playlists - numerical sorting

  • May 7, 2021
  • 14 replies
  • 279 views

In the sorting of playlists, could the app consider any numbers as numerical values, instead of as a strictly alphabetical string?

I imported numbered playlists from iTunes but the S2 app orders them like:

playlist 1

playlist 10

playlist 2

playlist 3 …

 

edit: I supposed the same question applies to sorting artists, album titles, and songs with numbers in the names, but it’s less of an issue here for me.

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Best answer by Corry P

Hi @Ayoriver 

I have tagged this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant team. Thanks!

14 replies

Lead Maestro
May 7, 2021

Add a “0” to the single digit playlists:

“playlist 01” rather than “playlist 1”

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
AyoriverAuthor
Avid Contributor I
May 7, 2021

That works unless you have playlist numbers that exceed 100. You could start at 001 to fix that, but then that’s a whole lot of playlist name editing then re-indexing.

controlav
Lead Maestro
May 8, 2021

Why not give more meaningful names to your playlists?

Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
AyoriverAuthor
Avid Contributor I
May 8, 2021

They’re not actually named “playlist 1” etc. That was to provide a generic example.

I have done a few different radio shows that have over 100 episodes each. So playlists are named with the title of the show + the number of the episode. 

..Why not implement more intelligent sorting?

May 9, 2021

They’re not actually named “playlist 1” etc. That was to provide a generic example.

I have done a few different radio shows that have over 100 episodes each. So playlists are named with the title of the show + the number of the episode. 

..Why not implement more intelligent sorting?

  1. it’s totally logical - it’s the way computers sort. Just use 001, 002 etc and it works fine…
  2. I strongly doubt that Sonos will bother changing their software for what must be an even smaller group of users that NAS users, but good luck with that.
AyoriverAuthor
Avid Contributor I
May 9, 2021
  1. it’s totally logical - it’s the way computers sort. Just use 001, 002 etc and it works fine…
  2. I strongly doubt that Sonos will bother changing their software for what must be an even smaller group of users that NAS users, but good luck with that.

I’ve not said it’s illogical. If you’re a machine, pure alphabetical sorting makes sense. I’ve asked for more intelligent sorting. Natural sort order, for the human user, makes *more* sense.

Natural sort order functionality is widely available, and implementing it would be a simple way to demonstrate that Sonos values the user experience.

Stick with purely alphabetical sorting, and you have to convince each user that ever asks why 11 should come before 2.  Seems pretty inefficient.

May 9, 2021

I’ve not said it’s illogical….. 


Stick with purely alphabetical sorting, and you have to convince each user that ever asks why 11 should come before 2.  Seems pretty inefficient.

The vast majority of people seem to have no trouble understanding it. 

AyoriverAuthor
Avid Contributor I
May 9, 2021

I’m very surprised by the level of resistance to having the software treat numbers the way humans treat numbers, especially when code for natural sort ordering already exists in several languages. 

May 9, 2021

I’m very surprised by the level of resistance to having the software treat numbers the way humans treat numbers, especially when code for natural sort ordering already exists in several languages. 

I’m very surprised that you don’t understand a simple computing concept that has been around since the dawn of computing. It also seems odd to me that you don’t simply correct your file names so that they work properly.

I really have no problem if Sonos change their software to do what you want, as long as it’s optional of course, but I can’t see them wasting their resources on something that has such an obvious solution. Maybe I’m wrong, though….

AyoriverAuthor
Avid Contributor I
May 9, 2021

I’m very surprised that you don’t understand a simple computing concept that has been around since the dawn of computing. It also seems odd to me that you don’t simply correct your file names so that they work properly.

I really have no problem if Sonos change their software to do what you want, as long as it’s optional of course, but I can’t see them wasting their resources on something that has such an obvious solution. Maybe I’m wrong, though….

 

I’ve demonstrated that I understand. I just disagree that this method of sorting should continue to be used when better solutions have since been developed and are readily available.

Your solution is to keep the old concept which requires a user to make potentially hundreds of edits to their own libraries, re-export the library files, then have Sonos re-index everything.  Multiply this by the number of libraries a user wants to import, and also by the number of users that would rather have the app read numbers as numbers.  Why insist that users go through all this when there’s a much simpler and elegant solution that’s already available?