[windows] What is the first character in the sort order used by Windows Explorer?

For example, in a Windows folder, if we create some files and name them 1.html, 2.txt, 3.txt, photo.jpg, zen.png the order will be as is. But if we create another file with the name _file.doc it will be placed at the top. (considering we sort by name in descending order)

likewise, what would be the character that would be considered as the first, such that if i use that character, it would place the file on top of the hierarchy?

TLDR; technically space sorts before exclamation mar, and can be used by preceding it with ' or - (which will be ignored in sorting), but exclamation mark follows right after space, and is easier to use.

On windows 7 at least, a minus sign (-) and (') seem to be ignored in a name except for one quirk: in a name that is otherwise identical, the ' will be sorted before -, for example: (a'a) will sort above (a-a)

Empty string will sort above everything else, which means for example aa will sort above aaa because the 'empty string' after two a letters will sort before the third 'a'.

This also means that aa will be sorted above a'a because the 'empty string' between two a letters will sort above the ' mark.

What follows then is, ' alone will sort first, because technically it's an empty string. However adding for example letters behind it will sort the name as if the ' didn't exist.

Since the first 'unignored' character (as far as I know) is space, in case you want to sort 'real names' above others, the best way to go would be ' followed by space, and then the name you want to actually use. For example: (' first)

You can of course top that by using more than one space in the strong, such as (' firster) and (' firstest) with two and three blanks before the f.

While minus sign sorts below ' in otherwise similar name, there's no other difference in sorting (that I know of), and I find minus sign visually clearer, so if I want to put something on top of list, I'd use minus followed by space, then the 'actual name', for example: (- first file -)

If you are worried about using space on the filename, then exclamation mark (!) is the next best thing - and since it can appear as first character on a string, it's easier to use.

I know there is already an answer - and this is an old question - but I was wondering the same thing and after finding this answer I did a little experimentation on my own and had (IMO) a worthwhile addition to the discussion.

The non-visible characters can still be used in a folder name - a placeholder is inserted - but the sort on ASCII value still seems to hold.

I tested on Windows7, holding down the alt-key and typing in the ASCII code using the numeric keypad. I did not test very many, but was successful creating foldernames that started with ASCII 1, ASCII 2, and ASCII 3. Those correspond with SOH, STX and ETX. Respectively it displayed happy face, filled happy face, and filled heart.

I'm not sure if I can duplicate that here - but I will type them in on the next lines and submit.

?foldername

?foldername

?foldername

If you google for sort order windows explorer you will find out that Windows Explorer (since Windows XP) obviously uses the function StrCmpLogicalW in the sort order "by name". I did not find information about the treatment of the underscore character. I was amused by the following note in the documentation:

Behavior of this function, and therefore the results it returns, can change from release to release. ...

Only a few characters in the Windows code page 1252 (Latin-1) are not allowed as names. Note that the Windows Explorer will strip leading spaces from names and not allow you to call a files space dot something (like ?.txt), although this is allowed in the file system! Only a space and no file extension is invalid however.

If you create files through e.g. a Python script (this is what I did), then you can easily find out what is actually allowed and in what order the characters get sorted. The sort order varies based on your locale! Below are the results of my script, run with Python 2.7.15 on a German Windows 10 Pro 64bit:

Allowed:

       32  20  SPACE
!      33  21  EXCLAMATION MARK
#      35  23  NUMBER SIGN
$      36  24  DOLLAR SIGN
%      37  25  PERCENT SIGN
&      38  26  AMPERSAND
'      39  27  APOSTROPHE
(      40  28  LEFT PARENTHESIS
)      41  29  RIGHT PARENTHESIS
+      43  2B  PLUS SIGN
,      44  2C  COMMA
-      45  2D  HYPHEN-MINUS
.      46  2E  FULL STOP
/      47  2F  SOLIDUS
0      48  30  DIGIT ZERO
1      49  31  DIGIT ONE
2      50  32  DIGIT TWO
3      51  33  DIGIT THREE
4      52  34  DIGIT FOUR
5      53  35  DIGIT FIVE
6      54  36  DIGIT SIX
7      55  37  DIGIT SEVEN
8      56  38  DIGIT EIGHT
9      57  39  DIGIT NINE
;      59  3B  SEMICOLON
=      61  3D  EQUALS SIGN
@      64  40  COMMERCIAL AT
A      65  41  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A
B      66  42  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER B
C      67  43  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C
D      68  44  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D
E      69  45  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E
F      70  46  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F
G      71  47  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER G
H      72  48  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER H
I      73  49  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I
J      74  4A  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER J
K      75  4B  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K
L      76  4C  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L
M      77  4D  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
N      78  4E  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N
O      79  4F  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O
P      80  50  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P
Q      81  51  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q
R      82  52  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R
S      83  53  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S
T      84  54  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T
U      85  55  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U
V      86  56  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V
W      87  57  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER W
X      88  58  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X
Y      89  59  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y
Z      90  5A  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z
[      91  5B  LEFT SQUARE BRACKET
\\     92  5C  REVERSE SOLIDUS
]      93  5D  RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET
^      94  5E  CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
_      95  5F  LOW LINE
`      96  60  GRAVE ACCENT
a      97  61  LATIN SMALL LETTER A
b      98  62  LATIN SMALL LETTER B
c      99  63  LATIN SMALL LETTER C
d     100  64  LATIN SMALL LETTER D
e     101  65  LATIN SMALL LETTER E
f     102  66  LATIN SMALL LETTER F
g     103  67  LATIN SMALL LETTER G
h     104  68  LATIN SMALL LETTER H
i     105  69  LATIN SMALL LETTER I
j     106  6A  LATIN SMALL LETTER J
k     107  6B  LATIN SMALL LETTER K
l     108  6C  LATIN SMALL LETTER L
m     109  6D  LATIN SMALL LETTER M
n     110  6E  LATIN SMALL LETTER N
o     111  6F  LATIN SMALL LETTER O
p     112  70  LATIN SMALL LETTER P
q     113  71  LATIN SMALL LETTER Q
r     114  72  LATIN SMALL LETTER R
s     115  73  LATIN SMALL LETTER S
t     116  74  LATIN SMALL LETTER T
u     117  75  LATIN SMALL LETTER U
v     118  76  LATIN SMALL LETTER V
w     119  77  LATIN SMALL LETTER W
x     120  78  LATIN SMALL LETTER X
y     121  79  LATIN SMALL LETTER Y
z     122  7A  LATIN SMALL LETTER Z
{     123  7B  LEFT CURLY BRACKET
}     125  7D  RIGHT CURLY BRACKET
~     126  7E  TILDE
\x7f  127  7F  DELETE
\x80  128  80  EURO SIGN
\x81  129  81  
\x82  130  82  SINGLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
\x83  131  83  LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK
\x84  132  84  DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK
\x85  133  85  HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
\x86  134  86  DAGGER
\x87  135  87  DOUBLE DAGGER
\x88  136  88  MODIFIER LETTER CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT
\x89  137  89  PER MILLE SIGN
\x8a  138  8A  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CARON
\x8b  139  8B  SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION
\x8c  140  8C  LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE OE
\x8d  141  8D  
\x8e  142  8E  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CARON
\x8f  143  8F  
\x90  144  90  
\x91  145  91  LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
\x92  146  92  RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
\x93  147  93  LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
\x94  148  94  RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
\x95  149  95  BULLET
\x96  150  96  EN DASH
\x97  151  97  EM DASH
\x98  152  98  SMALL TILDE
\x99  153  99  TRADE MARK SIGN
\x9a  154  9A  LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CARON
\x9b  155  9B  SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
\x9c  156  9C  LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE
\x9d  157  9D  
\x9e  158  9E  LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON
\x9f  159  9F  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS
\xa0  160  A0  NON-BREAKING SPACE
\xa1  161  A1  INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK
\xa2  162  A2  CENT SIGN
\xa3  163  A3  POUND SIGN
\xa4  164  A4  CURRENCY SIGN
\xa5  165  A5  YEN SIGN
\xa6  166  A6  PIPE, BROKEN VERTICAL BAR
\xa7  167  A7  SECTION SIGN
\xa8  168  A8  SPACING DIAERESIS - UMLAUT
\xa9  169  A9  COPYRIGHT SIGN
\xaa  170  AA  FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR
\xab  171  AB  LEFT DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTES
\xac  172  AC  NOT SIGN
\xad  173  AD  SOFT HYPHEN
\xae  174  AE  REGISTERED TRADE MARK SIGN
\xaf  175  AF  SPACING MACRON - OVERLINE
\xb0  176  B0  DEGREE SIGN
\xb1  177  B1  PLUS-OR-MINUS SIGN
\xb2  178  B2  SUPERSCRIPT TWO - SQUARED
\xb3  179  B3  SUPERSCRIPT THREE - CUBED
\xb4  180  B4  ACUTE ACCENT - SPACING ACUTE
\xb5  181  B5  MICRO SIGN
\xb6  182  B6  PILCROW SIGN - PARAGRAPH SIGN
\xb7  183  B7  MIDDLE DOT - GEORGIAN COMMA
\xb8  184  B8  SPACING CEDILLA
\xb9  185  B9  SUPERSCRIPT ONE
\xba  186  BA  MASCULINE ORDINAL INDICATOR
\xbb  187  BB  RIGHT DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTES
\xbc  188  BC  FRACTION ONE QUARTER
\xbd  189  BD  FRACTION ONE HALF
\xbe  190  BE  FRACTION THREE QUARTERS
\xbf  191  BF  INVERTED QUESTION MARK
\xc0  192  C0  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
\xc1  193  C1  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
\xc2  194  C2  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xc3  195  C3  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH TILDE
\xc4  196  C4  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
\xc5  197  C5  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE
\xc6  198  C6  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE
\xc7  199  C7  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
\xc8  200  C8  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH GRAVE
\xc9  201  C9  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
\xca  202  CA  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xcb  203  CB  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
\xcc  204  CC  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH GRAVE
\xcd  205  CD  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
\xce  206  CE  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xcf  207  CF  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS
\xd0  208  D0  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ETH
\xd1  209  D1  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH TILDE
\xd2  210  D2  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH GRAVE
\xd3  211  D3  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
\xd4  212  D4  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xd5  213  D5  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH TILDE
\xd6  214  D6  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
\xd7  215  D7  MULTIPLICATION SIGN
\xd8  216  D8  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH SLASH
\xd9  217  D9  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH GRAVE
\xda  218  DA  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
\xdb  219  DB  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xdc  220  DC  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
\xdd  221  DD  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
\xde  222  DE  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN
\xdf  223  DF  LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S
\xe0  224  E0  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH GRAVE
\xe1  225  E1  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
\xe2  226  E2  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xe3  227  E3  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH TILDE
\xe4  228  E4  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
\xe5  229  E5  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE
\xe6  230  E6  LATIN SMALL LETTER AE
\xe7  231  E7  LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
\xe8  232  E8  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH GRAVE
\xe9  233  E9  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
\xea  234  EA  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xeb  235  EB  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
\xec  236  EC  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH GRAVE
\xed  237  ED  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
\xee  238  EE  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xef  239  EF  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH DIAERESIS
\xf0  240  F0  LATIN SMALL LETTER ETH
\xf1  241  F1  LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE
\xf2  242  F2  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH GRAVE
\xf3  243  F3  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
\xf4  244  F4  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xf5  245  F5  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH TILDE
\xf6  246  F6  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
\xf7  247  F7  DIVISION SIGN
\xf8  248  F8  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH SLASH
\xf9  249  F9  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH GRAVE
\xfa  250  FA  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
\xfb  251  FB  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CIRCUMFLEX
\xfc  252  FC  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
\xfd  253  FD  LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
\xfe  254  FE  LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN
\xff  255  FF  LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH DIAERESIS

Forbidden:

\x00    0  00  NULL CHAR
\x01    1  01  START OF HEADING
\x02    2  02  START OF TEXT
\x03    3  03  END OF TEXT
\x04    4  04  END OF TRANSMISSION
\x05    5  05  ENQUIRY
\x06    6  06  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
\x07    7  07  BELL
\x08    8  08  BACK SPACE
\t      9  09  HORIZONTAL TAB
\n     10  0A  LINE FEED
\x0b   11  0B  VERTICAL TAB
\x0c   12  0C  FORM FEED
\r     13  0D  CARRIAGE RETURN
\x0e   14  0E  SHIFT OUT / X-ON
\x0f   15  0F  SHIFT IN / X-OFF
\x10   16  10  DATA LINE ESCAPE
\x11   17  11  DEVICE CONTROL 1 (OFT. XON)
\x12   18  12  DEVICE CONTROL 2
\x13   19  13  DEVICE CONTROL 3 (OFT. XOFF)
\x14   20  14  DEVICE CONTROL 4
\x15   21  15  NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
\x16   22  16  SYNCHRONOUS IDLE
\x17   23  17  END OF TRANSMIT BLOCK
\x18   24  18  CANCEL
\x19   25  19  END OF MEDIUM
\x1a   26  1A  SUBSTITUTE
\x1b   27  1B  ESCAPE
\x1c   28  1C  FILE SEPARATOR
\x1d   29  1D  GROUP SEPARATOR
\x1e   30  1E  RECORD SEPARATOR
\x1f   31  1F  UNIT SEPARATOR
"      34  22  QUOTATION MARK
*      42  2A  ASTERISK
:      58  3A  COLON
<      60  3C  LESS-THAN SIGN
>      62  3E  GREATER-THAN SIGN
?      63  3F  QUESTION MARK
|     124  7C  VERTICAL LINE

Screenshot of how Explorer sorts the files for me:

The highlighted file with the ? white smiley face was added manually by me (Alt+1) to show where this Unicode character (U+263A) ends up, see Jimbugs' answer.

The first file has a space as name (0x20), the second is the non-breaking space (0xa0). The files in the bottom half of the third row which look like they have no name use the characters with hex codes 0x81, 0x8D, 0x8F, 0x90, 0x9D (in this order from top to bottom).

From my testing, there are three criteria for sorting characters as described below. Aside from this, shorter strings are sorted above longer strings that start with the same characters.

Note: This testing only looked at the first character sorting and did not look into edge cases described by this answer, which found that, for all characters after the first character, numbers take precedence over symbols (i.e. the order is 1. Symbols 2. Numbers 3. Letters for first character, 1. Numbers 2. Symbols 3. Letters after). This answer also indicated that the Unicode/ASCII layer of sorting might not be entirely consistent. I'll update this answer if I get time to look into these edge cases.

Note: It's important to note that sorting order might be subject to change as described by this answer. It is not clear to me though the extent to which this actually ever changes. I've done this testing and found it to be valid on both Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Symbols
Latin (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Greek (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Cyrillic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Hebrew (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Arabic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))

Numbers
Latin (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Greek (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Cyrillic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Hebrew (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Arabic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))

Letters
Latin (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Greek (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Cyrillic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Hebrew (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))
Arabic (ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx))

Sorting Rule Sequence vs Observed Order

It's worth noting that there are really two ways of looking at this. Ultimately, what you have are sorting rules that are applied in a certain order, in turn, this produces an observed order. The ordering of older rules becomes nested under the ordering of newer rules. This means that the first rule applied is the last rule observed, while the last rule applied is the first or topmost rule observed.

Sorting Rule Sequence

1.) Sort on Unicode Value (U+xxxx)
2.) Sort on culture/language
3.) Sort on Type (Symbol, Number, Letter)

Observed Order

• The highest level of grouping is by type in the following order...

  1.) Symbols
  2.) Numbers
  3.) Letters

  Therefore, any symbol from any language comes before any number from any language, while any letter from any language appears after all symbols and numbers.

• The second level of grouping is by culture/language. The following order seems to apply for this:

  Latin
  Greek
  Cyrillic
  Hebrew
  Arabic

• The lowest rule observed is Unicode order, so items within a type-language group are ordered by Unicode value (U+xxxx).

Adapted from here: https://superuser.com/a/971721/496260

Although the answer with "!" was chosen as the correct answer, this is NOT true. I´m not sure about Windows Explorer in Windows 10/8.1/8, but I am certain concerning Windows 7 and XP.

The character that moves your filename to the very top is "'" (alt+39), and second best is "-" (the minus sign).

But sorting order in Windows Explorer is more complicated - it depends on the filename-lenght also, and numbers are treated very special.

The second character (and the following) is treated different. Here you often go best with a " " (spacebar), followed by the characters mentioned above, but you´ll have to try out, because it´s not so easy to find out the exact algorithm:

Here is an example for the correct sorting order for your understanding:

1. file: "'"
2. file: "''" (longer filename)
3. file: "'''" (and so on)
4. file: "-"
5. file: "--"
6. file: "---" (and so on)
7. file: "- -" (spacebar used)
8. file: "' '" (spacebar two times, therefore longer filename)
9. file: "' ' '" (most top character, but longer filename!)
10. file: "'' 0" (shorter filename, but chars like numbers came in)

Another example:

1. "'' aaaa" ("'" is better than spacebar and spacebar is better than "a")
2. "'' aaaaa"
3. "' aaaaaa"

Same filelenght:

1. "-- aa" (spacebar comes before "-" in this case!)
2. "---aa"
3. "--aaa"

Finally the very special logic when it comes to numbers:

1. "0000000"
2. "0"
3. "00001"

But nevertheless: Renaming folders or files this way, you can quickly find what you are searching for.

I know it's an old question, but it's easy to check this out. Just create a folder with a bunch of dummy files whose names are each character on the keyboard. Of course, you can't really use \ | / : * ? " < > and leading and trailing blanks are a terrible idea.

If you do this, and it looks like no one did, you find that the Windows sort order for the FIRST character is 1. Special characters 2. Numbers 3. Letters

But for subsequent characters, it seems to be 1. Numbers 2. Special characters 3. Letters

Numbers are kind of weird, thanks to the "Improvements" made after the Y2K non-event. Special characters you would think would sort in ASCII order, but there are exceptions, notably the first two, apostrophe and dash, and the last two, plus and equals. Also, I have heard but not actually seen something about dashes being ignored. That is, in fact, NOT my experience.

So, ShxFee, I assume you meant the sort should be ascending, not descending, and the top-most (first) character in the sort order for the first character of the name is the apostrophe.

As NigelTouch said, special characters do not sort to ASCII, but my notes above specify exactly what does and does not sort in normal ASCII order. But he is certainly wrong about special characters always sorting first. As I noted above, that only appears to be true for the first character of the name.

I had the same problem. I wanted to 'bury' a folder at the bottom of the sort instead of bringing it to the top with the '!' character. Windows recognizes most special characters as just that, 'special', and therefore they ALL are sorted at the top.

However, if you think outside of the English characters, you will find a lot of luck. I used Character Map and the arial font, scrolled down past '~' and the others to the greek alphabet. Capitol Xi, ?, worked best for me, but I didn't check to see which was the actual 'lowest' in the sort.