UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hello Everyone, I need help here . I need to sort a file for one of my requirement , The file has to be sorted using a key with 4 columns. Sorting is working fine on those 4 columns but when the key is matching for many rows the other columns are also getting sorted which is not required .

Giving an example here : File = Input.txt

Code:

1 101 100 
1 001 200
1 002 100

Here I am using below command to sort.

Code:

Sort -k1,1 -k3  Input.txt

This gives me below output:

Code:

1 002  100
1 101 100
1 001 200

I don't want to sort the second column here . I have tried with -s option for stable sort but the same is not supported .

Please help.

Hi, try

Code:

sort -Vr

and use option --debug for testing

--- Post updated at 19:22 ---

Code:

sort -k1,3.4 --debug

I dealt with something like this before. I had to add an extra column, which held the line number, like:

Code:

1 101 100 1
1 001 200 2
1 002 100 3

...so that I could give that column number to sort, forcing groups of lines back into file order after other sorting conditions were satisfied.

Code:

$ awk '{ $(NF+1)=NR } 1' < inputfile | sort -k1,1 -k 3 -k 4

1 101 100 1
1 002 100 3
1 001 200 2

$ awk '{ $(NF+1)=NR } 1' < data | sort -k1,1 -k 3 -k 4 | cut -d ' ' -f 1,2,3

1 101 100
1 002 100
1 001 200

$

The result you get is exactly as specified - sorted by field 1 (all lines identical), then field 3. I don't see column 2 sorted - it's just random, as its results are unspecified. To keep the original file order once all keys are consumed, try Corona688's approach, or, quite similar:

Code:

cat -n file3 | sort -b -k2,2 -k4n -k1,1 | cut -f2-
1 101 100 
1 002 100
1 001 200

The problem with your sample file is a trailing space in line one that influences the key 4 - use -n to overcome.

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I think the order of not-sorted columns is not defined. The usual algorithms seem to sort them to the lowest degree.
GNU sort has the --stable option:

Code:

sort --stable -k1,1 -k3,3 input.txt

Tried this .. Getting error that option is not supported

--- Post updated at 04:32 AM ---

I have 12 input files for this requirement .. Do I need to add the number in each file .. even if I do the key will match for multiple rows.