diff --git a/vrs/helpers/Strings.cpp b/vrs/helpers/Strings.cpp
index 4910decb..3c1fb292 100644
--- a/vrs/helpers/Strings.cpp
+++ b/vrs/helpers/Strings.cpp
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include <cstring>
 #include <ctime>
 
+#include <algorithm>
 #include <sstream>
 
 #include <fmt/format.h>
@@ -62,6 +63,56 @@ bool endsWith(const string& text, const string& suffix) {
           text.c_str() + text.length() - suffix.length(), suffix.c_str(), suffix.length()) == 0;
 }
 
+inline bool isdigit(char c) {
+  return std::isdigit(static_cast<uint8_t>(c));
+}
+
+static uint32_t lastDigitIndex(const char* str, uint32_t index) {
+  while (isdigit(str[index + 1])) {
+    index++;
+  }
+  return index;
+}
+
+inline char paddedChar(const char* str, uint32_t pos, uint32_t pad, uint32_t index) {
+  return index < pad ? '0' : str[pos + index - pad];
+}
+
+#define LEFT_C (left[left_p])
+#define RIGHT_C (right[right_p])
+
+bool beforeFileName(const char* left, const char* right) {
+  uint32_t leftPos = 0;
+  uint32_t rightPos = 0;
+  bool bothDigits = false;
+  while ((bothDigits = (isdigit(left[leftPos]) && isdigit(right[rightPos]))) ||
+         (left[leftPos] == right[rightPos] && left[leftPos] != 0)) {
+    if (bothDigits) {
+      uint32_t leftDigitLength = lastDigitIndex(left, leftPos) - leftPos;
+      uint32_t rightDigitLength = lastDigitIndex(right, rightPos) - rightPos;
+      uint32_t leftPad =
+          leftDigitLength < rightDigitLength ? rightDigitLength - leftDigitLength : 0;
+      uint32_t rightPad =
+          rightDigitLength < leftDigitLength ? leftDigitLength - rightDigitLength : 0;
+      uint32_t lastDigitIndex = max<uint32_t>(leftDigitLength, rightDigitLength);
+      for (uint32_t digitIndex = 0; digitIndex <= lastDigitIndex; digitIndex++) {
+        char lc = paddedChar(left, leftPos, leftPad, digitIndex);
+        char rc = paddedChar(right, rightPos, rightPad, digitIndex);
+        if (lc != rc) {
+          return lc < rc;
+        }
+      }
+      leftPos += leftDigitLength;
+      rightPos += rightDigitLength;
+    }
+    leftPos++, rightPos++;
+  }
+  if (left[leftPos] == 0) {
+    return right[rightPos] != 0;
+  }
+  return left[leftPos] < right[rightPos];
+}
+
 string humanReadableFileSize(int64_t bytes) {
   const int64_t unit = 1024;
   if (bytes < unit) {
diff --git a/vrs/helpers/Strings.h b/vrs/helpers/Strings.h
index ca9acfa7..cf21352d 100644
--- a/vrs/helpers/Strings.h
+++ b/vrs/helpers/Strings.h
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 
 #include <cstdint>
 
-#include <algorithm>
 #include <map>
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
@@ -53,6 +52,17 @@ inline int strncasecmp(const char* first, const char* second, size_t size) {
 }
 #endif
 
+/// Compare strings, as you'd expect in a modern desktop OS (Explorer/Finder), treating digit
+/// sections as numbers, so that "image1.png" is before "image02.png", and "image010.png" is the
+/// same as "image00010.png".
+/// Note: This is not a total order, since beforeFileName("image1.png", "image01.png") and
+/// beforeFileName("image01.png", "image1.png") are both false!
+bool beforeFileName(const char* left, const char* right);
+
+inline bool beforefileName(const std::string& left, const std::string& right) {
+  return beforeFileName(left.c_str(), right.c_str());
+}
+
 /// Returns a copy of the string from which all the characters in whiteChars
 /// at the beginning or at the end of the string have been removed.
 /// @param text: some utf8 text string to trim
diff --git a/vrs/helpers/test/StringsTest.cpp b/vrs/helpers/test/StringsTest.cpp
index 02584145..035dff82 100644
--- a/vrs/helpers/test/StringsTest.cpp
+++ b/vrs/helpers/test/StringsTest.cpp
@@ -323,3 +323,65 @@ TEST_F(StringsHelpersTester, splitTest) {
   helpers::split(str, 'l', actualTokens, true, " ");
   EXPECT_EQ(actualTokens, expectedTokens);
 }
+
+#define CHECK_BEFORE(a, b)                    \
+  EXPECT_TRUE(helpers::beforeFileName(a, b)); \
+  EXPECT_FALSE(helpers::beforeFileName(b, a));
+
+#define CHECK_SAME(a, b)                       \
+  EXPECT_FALSE(helpers::beforeFileName(a, b)); \
+  EXPECT_FALSE(helpers::beforeFileName(b, a));
+
+#define CHECK_BEFORE_SELF(a) EXPECT_FALSE(helpers::beforeFileName(a, a))
+
+TEST_F(StringsHelpersTester, beforeFileNameTest) {
+  helpers::beforeFileName("part0image10.png", "part0000image011.png");
+
+  CHECK_BEFORE_SELF("");
+  CHECK_BEFORE_SELF("a");
+  CHECK_BEFORE_SELF("abcd");
+  CHECK_BEFORE_SELF("abcd000z");
+
+  CHECK_BEFORE("", "a");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("", "0");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("00", "001");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("00", "0a");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("10", "011");
+
+  CHECK_SAME("0", "00");
+  CHECK_SAME("0", "0000000");
+  CHECK_SAME("10", "0010");
+  CHECK_SAME("123", "123");
+  CHECK_SAME("123", "0123");
+  CHECK_SAME("0123", "00000000123");
+  CHECK_SAME("image0123section3z", "image000123section003z");
+  CHECK_SAME("02image0123section3z", "2image0123section03z");
+
+  CHECK_SAME("image10.png", "image10.png");
+  CHECK_SAME("image010.png", "image10.png");
+  CHECK_SAME("image0010.png", "image10.png");
+  CHECK_SAME("image010.png", "image000010.png");
+
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image10a", "image10b");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image010a", "image10b");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image010a", "image0010b");
+
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image10.png", "image11.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image010.png", "image11.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image10.png", "image011.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image90.png", "image0110.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image90.png", "image0190.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image19.png", "image90.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image019.png", "image90.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image019.png", "image0090.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("image1901.png", "image19010.png");
+
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image10.png", "part0image11.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part00image010.png", "part0image11.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image10.png", "part0000image011.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image90.png", "part000image0110.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image90.png", "part0image0190.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image19.png", "part00image90.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image019.png", "part0image90.png");
+  CHECK_BEFORE("part0image019.png", "part0image0090.png");
+}