Orderby title doesn't sort numbers correctly

Titles sorted in the alphabetical order that is different with numeric. May be you need to order posts by a custom field value, by using the 'meta_value_num' orderby parameter in the query. The Codex tip

The problem is that the custom_field I’m using only works after the:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

This is my custom_field

$nummer = get_post_meta($post->ID, $shortname.'schilderijnummer_value', true);

And this is the query post:

[Code moderated as per the Forum Rules. Please use the pastebin]

Here is a bit of code that shows how to sort the posts array in the manner you described:

// Test leading numeric title sort
query_posts("posts_per_page=-1&caller_get_posts=1&orderby=title&order=ASC&cat=97");
if (have_posts()) {
   usort($wp_query->posts,'my_post_sort');
   while (have_posts()) {
      the_post();
      echo "<br />";the_title();
   }
}
function my_post_sort($a,$b) {
   $akey = $a->post_title;
   if (preg_match('/^(\d+) /',$akey,$matches)) {
      $akey = sprintf('%010d ',$matches[0]) . $akey;
   }
   $bkey = $b->post_title;
   if (preg_match('/^(\d+) /',$bkey,$matches)) {
      $bkey = sprintf('%010d ',$matches[0]) . $bkey;
   }
   if ($akey == $bkey) {
      return 0;
   }
   return ($akey < $bkey) ? -1 : 1;
}

@vtxyzzy;

Thanks, but it still gives me the following order:

1
12
3
4
7
8

That is odd, it works for me. Here is the result of my test of the code:

Sorted by title
1 number test
100 number test
20 number test
45 testing again
another number test with no number
number test without number

After numeric sort
1 number test
20 number test
45 testing again
100 number test
another number test with no number
number test without number

This is my entire code right now:

https://pastebin.com/MCQZ1TLW

Are your post titles entirely numbers – no text after the number?

That is not what you showed in your original post, so the preg_match is not quite right. Change the preg_match patterns from this:

(preg_match('/^(\d+) /', . . .

to this:

(preg_match('/^(\d+)/', . . .

by taking out the one space before the trailing slash.

There was no text after the numbers but there should be, so I changed that. The thing is, even with the space out of the code it still gives me the same reaction:

1 testes
12 aaaaa
3 dxfvvrer
4 xdfsd
7 aaaa
8 asasd

Just a guess, but try adding $wp_query to your globals.

global $imgDimensions, $substrExcerpt, $itemCaption, $shortname, $paged, $wp_query;

Good guess, but still the same … sorry

1 testes
12 aaaaa
20 dxfvvrer
4 xdfsd
45 asasd
7 aaaa

Here is the exact code I used (I added some debugging code).

Here is a screenshot of the results.

Sorted by title
1 testes
12 aaaaa
20 dxfvvrer
4 xdfsd
45 asasd
7 aaaa

After numeric sort
1 testes
12 aaaaa
20 dxfvvrer
4 xdfsd
45 asasd
7 aaaa

Darn, something is still going wrong …

Did you add in the debug code?

Yeah, here’s my complete code:

https://pastebin.com/jb9S7svS

Did you show all the output above? If so, the sort routine is not being called because the debug info is not shown.