Toolbox Aid

August 12th, 2024 2:01 PM Mr. Q Categories: Command

Description:
The sort command sorts lines of text files in ascending or descending order based on specified criteria. By default, it sorts lines alphabetically.

Command:

sort [options] file

Sample Input

file.txt:

apple
orange
banana
grape

Sample Output (Default Sorting):

apple
banana
grape
orange

Options:

• -r: Sort in reverse order.
• -n: Sort numerically (useful for sorting numbers).
• -k: Sort based on a specific field or column.
• -u: Output only unique lines.
• -t: Specify a delimiter for fields (used with -k).

Example with -r Option:

To sort lines in reverse order:

sort -r file.txt

Sample Output with -r:

orange
grape
banana
apple

Example with -n Option:

To sort numerically (useful when sorting numeric data):

sort -n numbers.txt

Sample Input numbers.txt:

10
2
33
22

Sample Output with -n:

2
10
22
33

Example with -k Option:

To sort based on a specific field, you need to specify the delimiter and field:

sort -t, -k2 file.csv

Sample Input file.csv:

John,30
Alice,25
Bob,28

Sample Output with -t, -k2:

Alice,25
Bob,28
John,30

Example with -u Option:

To sort and remove duplicate lines:

sort -u file.txt

Sample Output with -u:

apple
banana
grape
orange

Example with -t Option:

To specify a delimiter (for sorting CSV or tab-delimited files):

sort -t$'\t' -k1 file.tsv

Sample Input file.tsv:

apple\t2
banana\t1
orange\t3

Sample Output with -t$'\t' -k1:

apple\t2
banana\t1
orange\t3

The sort command is highly versatile and useful for organizing text data in a meaningful way.