How to do Sorting in UNIX???

UNIX sort allows us to sort data in numeric, alphabetic and reverse order whether it’s of column or multiple columns with delimiters. Sort order can be restricted to individual columns and then merged to one single file. Sorting becomes handy in many situations.

Syntax

sort [options] [files...]

Sort Order Commands

Sort -o	Filename to write sorted output to file, if not given then write to standard output.
Sort –d	Sort in dictionary order
Sort –n	Sort in numeric order(smallest first)
Sort -r	Sort in reverse order (z on top and a on bottom)
Sort –nr	Sort in  reverse numeric order
Sort +1	Sort starting with field 1 (starting from 0)
Sort +0.50	Sort starting with 50th character
Sort +1.5	Sort starting with 5th character of field 1
Sort -c	To see if a file is sorted (error message returned if not)
Sort -u	Suppress duplicate lines and output Identical input lines once.
Sort -M	Sort by month (JAN.FEB, MAR) Note that non-months are sorted first and uppercase letters precede lowercase letters for identical months.
Sort -k 1	Sort starting with the first character of the first field and continuing through the end of the line.

Below we have explained some examples which will make it easy to understand and perform sorting.

1. Simple Sort  .i.e. sort in alphabetical order starting from the first character

Example 1

$ cat sort_number.txt

100

232

3

1

44444

99

$ sort sort_number.txt

1

100

232

3

44444

99

Note: The above records are sorted alphabetically, not mathematically sorted.Same with below

Example 2

$ cat myfile

Saina

Eesto

Jaffer

Michael

$ sort myfile

Eesto

Jaffer

Michael

Saina

2. Sort Numerically 

Example 1

$cat sort_number.txt

100

232

3

1

44444

99

$sort -n sort_number.txt

1

3

99

100

232

44444

3. Sort numerically in Reverse order

Example 1

$sort -nr sort_number.txt

44444

232

100

99

3

1

4. Sort first column numeric, second column alphabetic, third numeric

Example 1

$cat sort_test.txt

1,a100,200,

1,a101,2

1,b100,123

1,b101,6,

1,b101,2

1,b102,2

2,a100,4

1,a100,45

2,b100,23

2,b100,1

$sort -t "," -k1n,1 -k2,2 -k3n,3 sort_test.txt

1,a100,45

1,a100,200,

1,a101,2

1,b100,123

1,b101,2

1,b101,6,

1,b102,2

2,a100,4

2,b100,1

2,b100,23

5. Sort by all three fields in reverse order

Example 1

$ sort -t "," -k1nr,1 -k2r,2 -k3nr,3 sort_test.txt

2,b100,23

2,b100,1

2,a100,4

1,b102,2

1,b101,6,

1,b101,2

1,b100,123

1,a101,2

1,a100,200,

1,a100,45

6. Sort only the third column

Example 1

$ cat sort_test.txt

1,a100,200,

1,a101,2

1,b100,123

1,b101,6,

1,b101,2

1,b102,2

2,a100,4

1,a100,45

2,b100,23

2,b100,1

$ sort -k3,3 sort_test.txt

1,a100,200,

1,a100,45

1,a101,2

1,b100,123

1,b101,2

1,b101,6,

1,b102,2

2,a100,4

2,b100,1

2,b100,23

  

7. Sort file by Name, Year, Month and Day

Example 1

$ cat sort_emp.txt

KELVIN BRAMES     10    JAN 2000

JAMES VINSE       02    MAR 1980

MOHAN NAIR       30    DEC 2012

JAMES VINSE       4     OCT 2011

KELVIN BRAMES     9     FEB 2000

MOHAN NAIR       01    DEC 2012

$ sort -k1,2 -k5,5n -k4,4M -k3,3n sort_emp.txt

JAMES VINSE       02    MAR 1980

JAMES VINSE       4     OCT 2011

KELVIN BRAMES     10    JAN 2000

KELVIN BRAMES     9     FEB 2000

MOHAN NAIR       01    DEC 2012

MOHAN NAIR        30    DEC 2012

8. Sort file with delimiter by Name, Year, Month and Day

Example 1

$ cat sort_emp.txt

KELVIN|BRAMES|10|JAN|2000

JAMES|VINSE|02|MAR|1980

MOHAN|NAIR|30|DEC|2012

JAMES|VINSE|4|OCT|2011

KELVIN|BRAMES|9|FEB|2000

MOHAN|NAIR|01|DEC|2012

$ sort -t"|" -k1,2 -k5,5n -k4,4M -k3,3n sort_emp.txt

JAMES|VINSE|02|MAR|1980

JAMES|VINSE|4|OCT|2011

KELVIN|BRAMES|10|JAN|2000

KELVIN|BRAMES|9|FEB|2000

MOHAN|NAIR|01|DEC|2012

MOHAN|NAIR|30|DEC|2012

 9. Sort the file,  file_sort  in alphabetical order and save the output in the file  Out_file.

Syntax:

$ sort -o Out_file  file_sort

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