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Full Discussion: Sort command - strange behaviour
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Sort command - strange behaviour Post 302199870 by miwinter on Wednesday 28th of May 2008 04:51:13 AM
Old 05-28-2008
Sort command - strange behaviour
Hi guys,

I have the following example data:

A;00:00:19
B;00:01:02
C;00:00:13
D;00:00:16
E;00:02:27
F;00:00:12
G;00:00:21
H;00:00:19
I;00:00:13
J;00:13:22

I run the following sort against it, yet the output is as follows:

sort -t";" +1 -nr example_data.dat

A;00:00:19
B;00:01:02
C;00:00:13
D;00:00:16
E;00:02:27
F;00:00:12
G;00:00:21
H;00:00:19
I;00:00:13
J;00:13:22

I'd expect it to recognise the field delimiter, skipping field 1 and then sorting numerically on the second field (i.e. to put the longest time first and the shortest last). Any ideas please? Is the ":" in this field causing an issue?

I've proven it is recognising the second field as the sort key by changing to a dictionary-based sort too:

sort -t"," +1 -dr example_data.dat

J,00:13:22
E,00:02:27
B,00:01:02
G,00:00:21
A,00:00:19
H,00:00:19
D,00:00:16
C,00:00:13
I,00:00:13
F,00:00:12

This produces the desired output against this subset of data, but when I run it against the 'live' data (of much larger volume) it isn't any use as it will start with all times beginning with '9' first and then in descending order, it has to be a numeric-based sort ultimately.

Thanks in advance,

Mark
Last edited by miwinter; 05-28-2008 at 05:55 AM.. Reason: Additional info
 

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LEARN ABOUT MOJAVE

slapo-valsort

SLAPO-VALSORT(5)						File Formats Manual						  SLAPO-VALSORT(5)

NAME

       slapo-valsort - Value Sorting overlay to slapd

SYNOPSIS

       /etc/openldap/slapd.conf

DESCRIPTION

       The  Value Sorting overlay can be used with a backend database to sort the values of specific multi-valued attributes within a subtree. The
       sorting occurs whenever the attributes are returned in a search response.

       Sorting can be specified in ascending or descending order, using either numeric or alphanumeric sort methods.  Additionally,  a	"weighted"
       sort  can  be specified, which uses a numeric weight prepended to the attribute values.	The weighted sort is always performed in ascending
       order, but may be combined with the other methods for values that all have equal weights. The weight is specified by prepending an  integer
       weight  {<weight>} in front of each value of the attribute for which weighted sorting is desired. This weighting factor is stripped off and
       never returned in search results.

CONFIGURATION

       These slapd.conf options apply to the Value Sorting overlay.  They should appear after the overlay directive.

       valsort-attr <attribute> <baseDN> (<sort-method> | weighted [<sort-method>])
	      Configure a sorting method for the specified attribute in the subtree rooted at baseDN.  The sort-method may be one of alpha-ascend,
	      alpha-descend, numeric-ascend, or numeric-descend.  If the special weighted method is specified, a secondary sort-method may also be
	      specified. It is an error to specify an alphanumeric sort-method for an attribute with Integer or NumericString syntax, and it is an
	      error to specify a numeric sort-method for an attribute with a syntax other than Integer or NumericString.

EXAMPLES

	    database bdb
	    suffix dc=example,dc=com
	    ...
	    overlay valsort
	    valsort-attr member ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com alpha-ascend

FILES

       /etc/openldap/slapd.conf
	      default slapd configuration file

SEE ALSO

       slapd.conf(5), slapd-config(5).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       This module was written in 2005 by Howard Chu of Symas Corporation. The work was sponsored by Stanford University.

OpenLDAP 2.4.28 						    2011/11/24							  SLAPO-VALSORT(5)
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