sorting with numbers in text

[snippsat]

before i start coding this, does anyone know of an existing function to do this?

Yes the problem is often called Human or Natural Sorting,
write a own function like DeaD_EyE is a common way,there also module like natsort
natsor works for many common cases.

>>> from natsort import natsorted
>>> 
>>> versions = ['version-1.9', 'version-2.0', 'version-1.11', 'version-1.10']
>>> sorted(versions)
['version-1.10', 'version-1.11', 'version-1.9', 'version-2.0']
>>> natsorted(versions)
['version-1.9', 'version-1.10', 'version-1.11', 'version-2.0']

Human Sorting where non-numeric characters are also ordered based on their meaning, not on their ordinal value.
Using the local decimal separator most common en_US.UTF-8.

>>> from natsort import humansorted
>>> 
>>> fruits = ['apple', 'apple1,4', 'Banana9,6', 'apple1,0', 'banana7,7']
>>> sorted(fruits)
['Banana9,6', 'apple', 'apple1,0', 'apple1,4', 'banana7,7']
>>> natsorted(fruits)
['Banana9,6', 'apple', 'apple1,0', 'apple1,4', 'banana7,7']
>>> 
>>> humansorted(fruits)
['apple', 'apple1,0', 'apple1,4', 'banana7,7', 'Banana9,6']