native_natural_sort 0.1.0

Locale-aware, numeric-aware natural string sorting for Flutter using each platform's native collation engine.

native_natural_sort

Locale-aware, numeric-aware natural string sorting for Flutter using each platform's native collation engine.

Features

• ✅ Cross-platform: Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows
• ✅ Locale-aware sorting via each platform's native collation engine
• ✅ Numeric-aware natural sort (e.g. file2 < file10)
• ✅ Sort-time locale and direction overrides
• ✅ Dual Windows backends: Pigeon (CompareStringEx) or FFI (ICU)
• ✅ Direct FFI access via IcuCollation for advanced use cases

Getting started

Add dependency with flutter pub add command

flutter pub add native_natural_sort

Or add below line to pubspec.yaml

dependencies:
  ...
  native_natural_sort: any  # or specific version

Then run flutter pub get.

Usage

import 'package:native_natural_sort/native_natural_sort.dart';

final sort = NativeSort();
await sort.config(SortOptions());
final sorted = await sort.sort([
  SortItem(id: 'a', value: 'file10.txt'),
  SortItem(id: 'b', value: 'file2.txt'),
  SortItem(id: 'c', value: 'file1.txt'),
]);
// sorted: [c, b, a]  (file1 < file2 < file10)

Platform-specific options

await sort.init(SortOptions(
  android: SortOptionsAndroid(
    locale: Locale('zh'),
    direction: SortDirection.descending,
  ),
  windows: SortOptionsWindows(
    locale: Locale('en'),
    sort: WindowsSort.ffi(),  // or WindowsSort.pigeon() (default)
  ),
));

Sort-time overrides

final sorted = await sort.sort(
  items,
  locale: Locale('fr'),
  direction: SortDirection.descending,
);

Windows backend selection

Backend	Technology	Notes
WindowsSort.pigeon()	CompareStringEx (Win32)	Default
WindowsSort.ffi()	OS-bundled ICU DLL	Requires Windows 10 1703+

Direct FFI access

import 'package:native_natural_sort/native_natural_sort.dart';

final collation = IcuCollation(engine);
final sorted = collation.sort(items: [...], idOf: ..., valueOf: ...);

For more examples, see the integration tests.

Architecture

NativeSortService (unified Dart API)
├── Android   → Pigeon → android.icu.text.Collator
├── iOS       → Pigeon → localizedStandardCompare
├── macOS     → Pigeon → localizedStandardCompare
├── Linux     → Dart FFI → system libicui18n
└── Windows   → Pigeon (CompareStringEx) or FFI (ICU)

Development

# Regenerate platform channel code
make gen

# Run analysis
make analyze

# Run tests
make test

Donate

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Fries_I23

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.