1.<\/strong>\u00a0First we will be creating a text file (tecmint.txt<\/strong>) to execute \u2018sort<\/strong>\u2018 command examples. Our working directory is \u2018\/home\/$USER\/Desktop\/tecmint<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The option \u2018-e<\/strong>\u2018 in the below command enables interpretion of backslash and\u00a0\/n<\/strong>\u00a0tells\u00a0echo<\/strong>\u00a0to write each string to a new line.<\/p>\n 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Before we start with \u2018sort<\/strong>\u2018 lets have a look at the contents of the file and the way it look.<\/p>\n 3.<\/strong>\u00a0Now sort the content of the file using following command.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong>\u00a0The above command don\u2019t actually sort the contents of text file but only show the sorted output on terminal.<\/p>\n 4.<\/strong>\u00a0Sort the contents of the file \u2018tecmint.txt<\/strong>\u2018 and write it to a file called (sorted.txt<\/strong>) and verify the content by using\u00a0cat command<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Now sort the contents of text file \u2018tecmint.txt<\/strong>\u2018 in reverse order by using \u2018-r<\/strong>\u2018 switch and redirect output to a file \u2018reversesorted.txt<\/strong>\u2018. Also check the content listing of the newly created file.<\/p>\n 6.<\/strong>\u00a0We are going a create a new file (lsl.txt<\/strong>) at the same location for detailed examples and populate it using the output of \u2018ls -l<\/strong>\u2018 for your home directory.<\/p>\n Now will see examples to sort the contents on the basis of other field and not the default initial characters.<\/p>\n 7.<\/strong>\u00a0Sort the contents of file \u2018lsl.txt<\/strong>\u2018 on the basis of\u00a02nd column<\/strong>\u00a0(which represents number of symbolic links).<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong>\u00a0The \u2018-n<\/strong>\u2018 option in the above example sort the contents numerically. Option \u2018-n<\/strong>\u2018 must be used when we wanted to sort a file on the basis of a column which contains numerical values.<\/p>\n 8.<\/strong>\u00a0Sort the contents of file \u2018lsl.txt<\/strong>\u2018 on the basis of\u00a09th column<\/strong>\u00a0(which is the name of the files and folders and is non-numeric).<\/p>\n 9.<\/strong>\u00a0It is not always essential to run sort command on a file. We can pipeline it directly on the terminal with actual command.<\/p>\n 10.<\/strong>\u00a0Sort and remove duplicates from the text file\u00a0tecmint.txt<\/strong>. Check if the duplicate has been removed or not.<\/p>\n Rules so far (what we have observed):<\/p>\n 11.<\/strong>\u00a0Create a third file \u2018lsla.txt<\/strong>\u2018 at the current location and populate it with the output of \u2018ls -lA<\/strong>\u2018 command.<\/p>\n Those having understanding of \u2018ls<\/strong>\u2018 command knows that \u2018ls -lA\u2019=\u2019ls -l<\/strong>\u2018 +\u00a0Hidden<\/strong>\u00a0files. So most of the contents on these two files would be same.<\/p>\n 12.<\/strong>\u00a0Sort the contents of two files on standard output in one go.<\/p>\n Notice the repetition of files and folders.<\/p>\n 13.<\/strong>\u00a0Now we can see how to sort, merge and remove duplicates from these two files.<\/p>\n Notice that duplicates has been omitted from the output. Also, you can write the output to a new file by redirecting the output to a file. That\u2019s all for now. In the next article we will cover a few more examples of \u2018sort<\/strong>\u2018 command in detail for you. Till then stay tuned and connected to Tecmint. Keep sharing. Keep commenting. Like and share us and help us get spread.<\/p>\n$ echo -e \"computer\\nmouse\\nLAPTOP\\ndata\\nRedHat\\nlaptop\\ndebian\\nlaptop\" > tecmint.txt\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
![\"Split](\"https:\/\/www.tecmint.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Split-String-by-Lines.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n$ cat tecmint.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort tecmint.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort tecmint.txt > sorted.txt\r\n$ cat sorted.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort -r tecmint.txt > reversesorted.txt\r\n$ cat reversesorted.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ ls -l \/home\/$USER > \/home\/$USER\/Desktop\/tecmint\/lsl.txt\r\n$ cat lsl.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort -nk2 lsl.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort -k9 lsl.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ ls -l \/home\/$USER | sort -nk5\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ cat tecmint.txt\r\n$ sort -u tecmint.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
$ ls -lA \/home\/$USER > \/home\/$USER\/Desktop\/tecmint\/lsla.txt\r\n$ cat lsla.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort lsl.txt lsla.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n$ sort -u lsl.txt lsla.txt\r\n<\/pre>\n
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\n14.<\/strong>\u00a0We may also sort the contents of a file or the output based upon more than one column. Sort the output of \u2018ls -l<\/strong>\u2018 command on the basis of field 2,5 (Numeric) and 9 (Non-Numeric).<\/p>\n$ ls -l \/home\/$USER | sort -t \",\" -nk2,5 -k9\r\n<\/pre>\n
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