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sort Cheatsheet

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Basic Syntax

Core sort command forms.

Command Description
sort file.txt Sort lines alphabetically (ascending)
sort -r file.txt Sort lines in reverse order
sort -n file.txt Sort numerically
sort -nr file.txt Sort numerically, largest first
sort file1 file2 Merge and sort multiple files

Sort by Field

Sort lines by one column or key.

Command Description
sort -k2 file.txt Sort by second field
sort -k2,2 file.txt Sort using only field 2 as key
sort -t: -k3,3n /etc/passwd Sort by UID field in /etc/passwd
sort -t, -k1,1 data.csv Sort CSV by first column
sort -k3,3 -k1,1 file.txt Secondary sort: key 3, then key 1

Numeric and Human Sizes

Handle numbers and size suffixes correctly.

Command Description
sort -n numbers.txt Numeric sort
sort -g values.txt General numeric sort (floats/scientific notation)
sort -h sizes.txt Sort human-readable sizes (K, M, G)
`du -sh /var/* sort -h`
sort -V versions.txt Natural version sort (1.9 before 1.10)

Unique and Check

Detect duplicates and verify sorted input.

Command Description
sort -u file.txt Sort and remove duplicate lines
`sort file.txt uniq`
`sort file.txt uniq -c`
sort -c file.txt Check if file is sorted
sort -C file.txt Quiet sorted-check (status code only)

In-Place and Output

Safe ways to write sorted results.

Command Description
sort file.txt > sorted.txt Write output to a new file
sort -o file.txt file.txt Sort in place safely
sort -o out.txt in.txt Write sorted output with -o
sort -T /tmp bigfile.txt Use temp directory for large sorts
LC_ALL=C sort file.txt Byte-order sort for predictable locale behavior

Common Pipelines

Practical combinations with other commands.

Command Description
`grep -Eo ‘[[:alnum:]_]+’ file.txt sort
`cut -d’,’ -f2 data.csv sort`
`sort access.log uniq -c
`ps -eo user= sort
`find . -type f sort`

Troubleshooting

Quick checks for common sort issues.

Issue Check
Numbers sorted as text Add -n (or -g for floats)
Size values ordered incorrectly Use -h for human-readable sizes
Unexpected uppercase/lowercase order Use -f or set locale with LC_ALL=C
File was emptied after sorting Do not use sort file > file; use sort -o file file
Different results across systems Verify locale and use explicit key options (-k)

Related Guides

Use these guides for full sorting and text-processing workflows.

Guide Description
sort Command in Linux Full sort guide with examples
uniq Remove and count duplicate lines after sorting
head Command in Linux Show the first lines of output
wc Command in Linux Count lines, words, and bytes
cut Command in Linux Extract fields from text
grep Command in Linux Search and filter matching lines