sort

The sort command is a Linux/Unix command-line utility used to sort the lines of a text file or input stream in lexicographical order (alphabetical order for text and ascending order for numbers). It's a versatile tool with various options for customizing the sorting process.

SYNTAX: sort [options] [file]

Options: The sort command has several options that allow you to customize the sorting behavior. Some common options include:
    -r or --reverse: Reverse the order of the sort.
    -n or --numeric-sort: Treats the lines as numeric values.
    -k or --key: Specifies a key field for sorting.
    -b or --ignore-leading-blanks: Ignores leading whitespace.
    -f or --ignore-case: Performs a case-insensitive sort.
    -u or --unique: Removes duplicate lines.
    -t or --field-separator: Specifies a field separator.

Examples

Sort lines in a file

sort filename

Sort lines numerically

sort -n filename

Reverse sort lines

sort -r filename

Sort and remove duplicate lines

sort -u filename

Sort a specific field in a csv file

sort -t',' -k2,2 filename.csv

Sort lines in reverse numerical order

sort -n -r filename

Sort lines based on a column using whitespace as delimiter

sort -k2,2 -t' ' filename.txt

Sort and merge pre-sorted files

sort -m file1 file2

Sort files based on modification time

ls -lt | sort -k6,7

Sort lines in random order

sort -R filename

Sort and print unique values from a column

sort -u -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort and display human-readable file sizes

du -h | sort -h

Sort ip addresses in numerical order

sort -t. -k1,1n -k2,2n -k3,3n -k4,4n filename.txt

Sort lines based on the last field in a csv file

sort -t',' -kNF,NF filename.csv

Sort files based on access time

ls -lt --time=atime | sort -k6,7

Sort and print only unique lines

sort -u filename

Sort lines based on field 2 and 3 numerically

sort -n -k2,2 -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort lines in reverse order based on the second column

sort -k2,2r filename.txt

Sort and remove leading whitespaces in a file

cat filename | sort | sed 's/^ *//'

Sort lines based on field 3, case-insensitive

sort -f -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort lines in descending order based on numeric values

sort -n -r filename

Sort lines based on field 2, ignore leading whitespaces

sort -k2,2n -b filename.txt

Sort lines based on field 2, skip leading whitespace

sort -k2,2 -b filename.txt

Sort lines based on the last character in each line

rev filename | sort | rev

Sort and count occurrences of each line

sort filename | uniq -c

Sort by month (assuming month names in a column)

sort -M -k2 filename.txt

Sort by file size in human-readable format

ls -lh | sort -h -k5

Sort lines based on the second and third fields numerically

sort -n -k2,2 -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort lines based on field 2, case-insensitive

sort -f -k2,2 filename.txt

Sort and display unique lines, counting repeated lines

sort filename | uniq -c

Sort lines in reverse order based on field 3

sort -k3,3r filename.txt

Sort lines based on field 2 in a csv file, ignore case

sort -t',' -f -k2,2 filename.csv

Sort lines based on field 1 and 2 in numerical order

sort -n -k1,1 -k2,2 filename.txt

Sort lines based on field 2, ignore case and leading whitespaces

sort -k2,2f -b filename.txt

Sort and display unique lines, case-insensitive

sort -fu filename

Sort and display unique lines, ignore leading whitespaces

sort -bu filename

Sort lines based on field 2 and 3, numeric and case-insensitive

sort -n -f -k2,2 -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort and display unique lines, counting repeated lines, ignore case

sort -fu filename | uniq -ci

Sort lines based on field 3, numeric and case-insensitive

sort -n -f -k3,3 filename.txt

Sort lines based on field 2, reverse numerical order

sort -n -r -k2,2 filename.txt