Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi!
I'm trying to sort a file.dat with the sort command. The data contained by file.dat is similar to the data set below:

100.000
99.000
110.000

55.000
113.000
33.000

25.000
9.000
15.000

It is relatively easy to sort the data in ascending or descending order, but the problem is that the separating empty rows between the blocks are put on top of the sorted file. I wish to keep the empty rows and sort the data blocks separately, like this:

99.000
100.000
110.000

33.000
55.000
113.000

9.000
15.000
25.000

Can anybody please help me?
And also I must mention that I'm quite new at UNIX scripting, so try to explain in plain English !


bjorb

Got gawk?

Code:

gawk 'BEGIN{RS=""}{n=split($0,a);asort(a);for(i=0;i<=n;i++) print a[i] }' file.dat

Code:

ruby -00ne'puts split("\n").sort_by{|x|x.to_f};puts' file

Hehe!
First of all I want to give my appreciation for a quick answer.

Without knowing what the heck that code from Ygor meant I tested it in my script. It seemed to work partially in my case, but as a result of my own lazyness it did not give me the result I need.

The data set is really in this format:

100.000 23.000 150.000
99.000 83.000 369.000
110.000 15.000 123.000

55.000 105.000 69.000
113.000 7.000 78.000
33.000 89.000 63.000

25.000 23.000 23.000
9.000 63.000 81.000
15.000 38.000 23.000


The columns represent x-, y- and z-coordinates.
I wish to sort the columns with x- and y-coordinates in ascending order.
Data is also supposed to be written back to data.dat
I apologize for any inconvenience and humbly ask you to help me again.

It is also in my interest to understand the prospective code which is given.
Where can I get a good tutorial on gawk?

Regards
bjorb

You mean change

Code:

100.000   23.000    150.000
99.000    83.000    369.000
110.000   15.000    123.000

to this?

Code:

99.000    15.000    159.000
100.000   23.000    369.000
110.000   83.000    123.000

After reviewing my needs I have realized that it would be sufficient to sort the data only considering the column with the y-coordinates:

From
100.000 23.000 150.000
99.000 83.000 369.000
110.000 15.000 123.000

to
110.000 15.000 123.000
100.000 23.000 150.000
99.000 83.000 369.000

How can I do this?

Regards

bjorb

Code:

ruby -00ne'puts split("\n").sort_by{|x|x[/\s\S+/].to_f};puts' file