sort command examples

Sort command in Unix:

The sort command sorts lines of all the named files together and writes the result on the standard output. Comparisons are based on one or  more  sort  keys  extracted from  each line of input. By default, there is one sort key, the entire input line. Lines are ordered  according to the collating sequence of the current locale.

Examples:

ubuntu:user% cat line
test1|test2|test3
one|two|three
dev|stag|prod
solaris|linux|unix
oracle|sybase|mysql

//Sorted by 1st column

ubuntu:user% sort -t'|' -k1 line
dev|stag|prod
one|two|three
oracle|sybase|mysql
solaris|linux|unix
test1|test2|test3

//Sorted by 2nd column

ubuntu:user% sort -t'|' -k2 line

solaris|linux|unix

dev|stag|prod

oracle|sybase|mysql

test1|test2|test3

one|two|three

//Reverses the order

ubuntu:user% sort -rt'|' -k1 line

test1|test2|test3

solaris|linux|unix

oracle|sybase|mysql

one|two|three

dev|stag|prod

//Sorts by number

ubuntu:user% sort -nt'|' -k4 line

solaris|linux|unix|1

test1|test2|test3|2

one|two|three|3

dev|stag|prod|4

oracle|sybase|mysql|5

//Using sort in combination with other commands using pipe

ubuntu:user% cat line | egrep "dev|oracle|one" | sort -nt '|' -k4

one|two|three|3

dev|stag|prod|4

oracle|sybase|mysql|5

//If the delimeter is not specified, then sort command takes the entire line as a string and sorts it based on the first column

ubuntu:user% sort line

dev|stag|prod|4

one|two|three|3

oracle|sybase|mysql|5

solaris|linux|unix|1

test1|test2|test3|2