The sort utility key field specifiers -k 1,3 and -k 12,4 are specifying ranges of fields (not output print columns). To sort on the 1st three characters (still not print columns) on the line as the primary sort key and the 12th through the 15th characters of the 1st field as the secondary sort key the way to specify it would be:
which would save:
in output.txt for the given sample input. Note that when all given sort keys give two or more lines the same sort order (as in the last two lines here), the tie is broken by using the entire line as a final increasing order alphanumeric sort key.
PS Note also that sort works on text, not binary data. It sorts characters; not bytes. If the file you're sorting is ASCII it might not matter; but if your text contains UTF-8 multibyte characters; it makes a big difference.
Last edited by Don Cragun; 11-05-2013 at 06:33 PM..
Reason: Note byte != character.
This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
M 47 HIS:LOT 32 DUTY 2 MIKE, FINISHED
MIKE ACTIVE STATUS
23TASK YES GOOD
100TASK NO GOOD
========================================
M 47 HIS:LOT 1 DUTY 1 MIKE, FINISHED
MIKE ACTIVE STATUS
23TASK YES GOOD
... (7 Replies)
I'm looking for a sort command that will sort by zip code first then by last name. (zip code is the last field, last name is first field)
data file looks like this.
Hope Bob 1234 Main ST. Colorado Springs, CO 80920
I was thinking along the lines of:
sort -k9n address.data //for the... (2 Replies)
Hi all.
Is there a way that I can use the sort command too sort the following field by earliest time (12:00AM) to latest time (11:59PM)?
07:12PM
07:53PM
07:54PM
08:07PM
10:15AM
10:21AM
TIA!!!!!! (1 Reply)
Hi to all.
I'm trying to sort this with the Unix command sort.
user1:12345678:3.5:2.5:8:1:2:3
user2:12345679:4.5:3.5:8:1:3:2
user3:12345687:5.5:2.5:6:1:3:2
user4:12345670:5.5:2.5:5:3:2:1
user5:12345671:2.5:5.5:7:2:3:1
I need to get this:
user3:12345687:5.5:2.5:6:1:3:2... (7 Replies)
I am going through the Unix Made Easy second edition book by John Muster. So far it's been very informative and I can tell it may be a bit out of date.
In one of the exercises it talks about the "sort" command and using it to sort column's of data etc. The "sort" command has changed a bit and... (1 Reply)
Hi Guys,
I have a file to be sorted and uniq with the following format.
S00001002|01|20021231
S00001002|01|20011031
S00001006|01|20120430
S00001006|01|20111231
S00001006|01|20111031
S00001006|01|20110831
S00001006|01|20110731
S00001006|01|20101231
S00001006|01|20091231... (5 Replies)
I have a file like this:
/vol/eng_app_0103z
/vol/eng_app_0103z
/vol/eng_app_0120z
/vol/eng_app_0126z
/vol/eng_app_0144z
/vol/eng_app_0150z
/vol/eng_app_0154z
/vol/eng_app_01551z
/vol/eng_app_01552z
/vol/eng_app_0155z
/vol/eng_app_0164z
/vol/eng_app_0199zWhen I use the sort command... (3 Replies)
Have a text file containing 4 columns, the 4th column is sorted numerically in descending order. The 2nd column is alpha text. Been able to get the 4th column to sort in descending order. The 2nd column sorts correctly but it's also in reverse. Would like to be able to keep the 4th column sort... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: jimmyf
8 Replies
LEARN ABOUT HPUX
fmt
fmt(1) General Commands Manual fmt(1)NAME
fmt - format text
SYNOPSIS
width] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The command is a simple text formatter that fills and joins lines to produce output lines of (up to) the number of characters specified in
the width option. The default width is 72. concatenates the arguments. If none are given, formats text from the standard input.
Blank lines are preserved in the output, as is the spacing between words. does not fill lines beginning with a period for compatibility
with Nor does it fill lines starting with
Indentation is preserved in the output and input lines with differing indentation are not joined (unless is used).
can also be used as an in-line text filter for the command:
reformats the text between the cursor location and the end of the paragraph.
Options
recognizes the following options:
Crown margin mode.
Preserve the indentation of the first two lines within a paragraph and align the left margin of each subsequent line with that
of the second line. This is useful for tagged paragraphs.
Split lines only.
Do not join short lines to form longer ones. This prevents sample lines of code, and other such "formatted" text, from being
unduly combined.
Fill output lines to up to
width columns.
WARNINGS
The width option is acceptable for BSD compatibility, but it may go away in future releases.
SEE ALSO nroff(1), vi(1).
fmt(1)