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Sort command - strange behaviour

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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Sort command - strange behaviour
# 8  
Old 05-28-2008
Using option g?

Code:
sort -t";" -k 2,2rg file.to.sort

# 9  
Old 05-29-2008
@ripat
Nope doesn't work - check the second column when having the ":" as delimeter. It only sorts the 1st number in front of the 1st ":".

@miwinter
Hm, I tested it with mawk on Debian Linux and on AIX with awk and no duplicate output. Not sure what you have to add to supress the duplicates... if you find no option to tell it awk, maybe pipe it into "uniq" at the end.
# 10  
Old 05-29-2008
Or split the input to make it easier for sort to parse the fields you want.

Code:
vnix$*awk -F';' '{ split($2,t,":"); print t[1] ";" t[2] ";" t[3] ";" $0 }' <<HERE |
> GleamMIPostCanadaExtractJob;9196:53:12
> GleamMIAGREERepAllBackOutJob;9025:39:12
> GleamMIAGREEProdFacilCombJob;9025:29:36
> GleamMIAGREEExcRateHistExtractJob;9025:21:26
> GleamMIAGREEDynamicParamJob;9025:19:10
> GleamMIAGREEClassPODLoadJob;9025:09:43
> GleamMIAGREEClassExtractJob;9025:11:35
> GLMLRP_Diff_HighlighterJob;989:08:56
> GLMLRP_ComparisonJob;989:13:42
> AD046;988:44:15
> HERE
> sort -t ';' -rn | cut -d ';' -f4-
GleamMIPostCanadaExtractJob;9196:53:12
GleamMIAGREERepAllBackOutJob;9025:39:12
GleamMIAGREEProdFacilCombJob;9025:29:36
GleamMIAGREEExcRateHistExtractJob;9025:21:26
GleamMIAGREEDynamicParamJob;9025:19:10
GleamMIAGREEClassExtractJob;9025:11:35
GleamMIAGREEClassPODLoadJob;9025:09:43
GLMLRP_ComparisonJob;989:13:42
GLMLRP_Diff_HighlighterJob;989:08:56
AD046;988:44:15

Take away the final cut to see what it's really doing.
# 11  
Old 05-29-2008
sort has a strange behavior. When you pipe him the second field using awk, the sort is ok:
Code:
$ awk -F";" '{print $2}' f | sort -rn
9196:53:12
9025:39:12
9025:29:36
9025:21:26
9025:19:10
9025:11:35
9025:09:43
989:13:42
989:08:56
988:44:15

But when you ask sort to do the very same i.e to split on the ; and sort on the second key, the output is, indeed, not as expected:
Code:
$ sort -t";" -k2rn f
GleamMIPostCanadaExtractJob;9196:53:12
GleamMIAGREEClassExtractJob;9025:11:35
GleamMIAGREEClassPODLoadJob;9025:09:43
GleamMIAGREEDynamicParamJob;9025:19:10
GleamMIAGREEExcRateHistExtractJob;9025:21:26
GleamMIAGREEProdFacilCombJob;9025:29:36
GleamMIAGREERepAllBackOutJob;9025:39:12
GLMLRP_ComparisonJob;989:13:42
GLMLRP_Diff_HighlighterJob;989:08:56
AD046;988:44:15

Very strange.
# 12  
Old 05-29-2008
And one more...
Forgot about that you can use more than one Field Separator - so here a more compact version (ok, some cheating on the delimiters with sed in the end):

Code:
awk -F ";|:" 'BEGIN{OFS=":"} {print $1,$2,$3,$4}' infile| sort -t ":" -rn -k 2,2 -k 3,3 -k 4,4 | sed -n 's/\:/\;/p'

@era
Btw, funny awards on your site Smilie
# 13  
Old 05-29-2008
Got it! I had to read all possible options, even the one that are not well documented!

Code:
$ sort -t";" -s -k2,2rn f
GleamMIPostCanadaExtractJob;9196:53:12
GleamMIAGREERepAllBackOutJob;9025:39:12
GleamMIAGREEProdFacilCombJob;9025:29:36
GleamMIAGREEExcRateHistExtractJob;9025:21:26
GleamMIAGREEDynamicParamJob;9025:19:10
GleamMIAGREEClassExtractJob;9025:11:35
GleamMIAGREEClassPODLoadJob;9025:09:43
GLMLRP_ComparisonJob;989:13:42
GLMLRP_Diff_HighlighterJob;989:08:56
AD046;988:44:15

Option -s did the trick! Found solution by reading this man page:
Code:
   Finally, as a last resort when all keys compare equal (or if no
   ordering options were specified at all), `sort' compares the entire
   lines.  The last resort comparison honors the `-r' global option.  The
   `-s' (stable) option disables this last-resort comparison so that lines
   in which all fields compare equal are left in their original relative
   order.  If no fields or global options are specified, `-s' has no
   effect.

sort Linux Commands: Sort text files
# 14  
Old 05-29-2008
Nice solution! Smilie

Edit:
Just saw that sort does not have that switch on AIX (didn't look for a similar one) but on Linux, nice though Smilie
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