sort-numeric.py

def _make_string_sortable_numerically(string:str) -> List[Tuple[int, int]]:
    """
    each character becomes a tuple of two ints. The first int is either 0,1, or 2
    0 for characters that come before numbers, 1 for numbers, 2 for after numbers
    the second int is the unicode value of the character, or the integer value of the number
    that this character is a part of.
                $         7         8         9         a        ~
    "$789a~" -> [[0, 36], [1, 789], [1, 789], [1, 789], [2, 97], [2, 126]]
    """
    output = [[None, None] for _ in range(len(string))]
    skip_these_indexes = [False]*len(string)
    for i, char in enumerate(string):
        if skip_these_indexes[i]:
            continue
        char_int = ord(char)
        if char_int < ord("0"):
            output[i] = (0, char_int)
        elif str.isdigit(char):
            first_digit_index = i
            last_digit_index = i
            while (last_digit_index < len(string)-1 and str.isdigit(string[last_digit_index+1])):
                last_digit_index += 1
            this_number = int(string[first_digit_index:last_digit_index+1])
            for digit_index in range(first_digit_index, last_digit_index+1):
                skip_these_indexes[digit_index] = True
                output[digit_index] = (1, this_number)
        elif char_int > ord("9"):
            output[i] = (2, char_int)
    return output