sort - macOS

Overview

sort is a versatile command-line utility for sorting text files or input data. It’s widely used in macOS and Linux systems to organize and rearrange data based on specific criteria.

Syntax

sort [options] [files]

Options/Flags

  • -b: Ignore leading blanks and tabs when sorting.
  • -c: Check for already-sorted files; report errors if unsorted.
  • -d: Sort in dictionary order (case-insensitive).
  • -f: Fold case (upper and lower case are considered equal).
  • -i: Ignore non-printing characters (e.g., tabs).
  • -k: Specify a key field with the following syntax: -k [field],[type] (field: number or POSIX character class; type: letter, number, or month).
  • -n: Sort numerically instead of lexicographically.
  • -o: Output the sorted data to a file.
  • -r: Reverse the sorting order.
  • -t: Use the specified character as the field separator.
  • -u: Remove duplicate lines from the output.
  • -V: Print the version of sort and exit.
  • -z: Terminate lines with a null character instead of a newline.

Examples

  • Simple sorting: sort file1.txt
  • Reverse numerical sorting: sort -n -r file2.txt
  • Sort by the second field: sort -k 2 file3.txt
  • Ignore leading whitespace: sort -b file4.txt
  • Output to a file: sort file5.txt -o sorted.txt

Common Issues

  • Incorrect field separator: Check the -t option to ensure it matches the data.
  • Unsorted input: Use the -c option to check if the input is already sorted.
  • Ambiguous sort criteria: Specify multiple sort keys using -k to resolve ambiguities.

Integration

sort integrates well with other commands, such as:

  • cut and paste for extracting and sorting specific fields.
  • uniq for removing duplicate lines after sorting.
  • awk for advanced data manipulation and sorting.
  • grep
  • wc
  • nl