Detect Folder Sorting Method

I'm working on an image viewer, which incorporates a previous/next feature, much like the one in Windows Photo Viewer. However, I have noticed that when I read the directory contents and store them in an array, no matter which method I use to accomplish this it is always sorted alphabetically. I was manually making a "sort by date" or "sort by size" method but it looks like there are many many other ones that people use.

Does anyone know of possible ways to read a directory's contents to an array or list, taking into account the directory's method of sorting?

Thank you!