Sort -t: -k1


 
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# 1  
Old 02-07-2020
Sort -t: -k1

My file1.txt looks like below:
Code:
Feb 03 15:58:27 2020
Feb 03 16:01:23 2020
Feb 03 16:11:29 2020
Feb 04 11:01:49 2020
Jan 20 16:27:38 2020
Jan 20 16:29:51 2020
Jan 20 16:44:39 2020
Jan 20 16:56:41 2020

I tried: sort -t: -k1 and result below:
Code:
Feb 03 15:58:27 2020
Feb 03 16:01:23 2020
Feb 03 16:11:29 2020
Feb 04 11:01:49 2020
Jan 20 16:27:38 2020
Jan 20 16:29:51 2020
Jan 20 16:44:39 2020
Jan 20 16:56:41 2020

I'd like to have Feb 04 11:01:49 2020 as the last line.
Thanks in advance!

--- Post updated at 07:02 PM ---

I tried sort -nrz and result below. close but not in order:

Code:
Jan 20 16:56:41
Feb 03 16:11:29
Jan 20 16:27:38
Jan 20 16:29:51
Feb 03 15:58:27
Feb 03 16:01:23
Jan 20 16:44:39
Feb 04 11:01:49

Moderator's Comments:
Mod Comment Please always do wrap your samples in CODE TAGS as per forum rules.

Last edited by rbatte1; 02-10-2020 at 01:58 PM..
# 2  
Old 02-07-2020
To sort dates it works best to convert them to epoch seconds - the number of seconds since Jan 1 970. This code adds an epoch time sorts based on the epoch time, then prints the original minus the seconds: this assumes some kin of linux OS -
Code:
while read dt 
do   
   echo $(date -d "$dt" +%s) $dt;    
 done <  file | sort -k1n | awk '{printf("%s %s %s %s\n", $2, $3, $4, $5) }'

Called a tag sort.
I get this output:
Code:
Jan 20 16:27:38 2020
Jan 20 16:29:51 2020
Jan 20 16:44:39 2020
Jan 20 16:56:41 2020
Feb 03 15:58:27 2020
Feb 03 16:01:23 2020
Feb 03 16:11:29 2020
Feb 04 11:01:49 2020

--- Post updated at 17:16 ---

@Drl - one of our senior people, may mention getting a linux package for date operations, one of the commands is "dsort" which does exactly what the code above does. Hopefully he will mention where to download it. I do not know
These 2 Users Gave Thanks to jim mcnamara For This Post:
# 3  
Old 02-07-2020
Some sort versions - my is

Code:
$ sort --version
sort (GNU coreutils) 8.30

- offer the option (man sort)
Quote:
-M, --month-sort
compare (unknown) < 'JAN' < ... < 'DEC'
so it would yield
Code:
$ sort -M file
Jan 20 16:27:38 2020
Jan 20 16:29:51 2020
Jan 20 16:44:39 2020
Jan 20 16:56:41 2020
Feb 03 15:58:27 2020
Feb 03 16:01:23 2020
Feb 03 16:11:29 2020
Feb 04 11:01:49 2020

These 2 Users Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
# 4  
Old 02-08-2020
Using RudiC's suggestion of -M , using GNU sort
Code:
sort -k4n -k1,1M -k2,3n file

Would complete the sort.
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
# 5  
Old 02-08-2020
sort -k4n -k1,1M -k2,3n file worked perfectly. Thank you so much!

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 02-08-2020 at 08:24 AM.. Reason: icode tags
# 6  
Old 02-09-2020
Hi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jim mcnamara
...
@Drl - one of our senior people, may mention getting a linux package for date operations, one of the commands is "dsort" which does exactly what the code above does. Hopefully he will mention where to download it. I do not know
The code is available in some repositories (I just installed it in a VM for Debian Buster), and also at github, as newer versions 0.4.3 .. 0.4.7:
Code:
dateutils.dsort Sort contents of FILE chronologically. (man)
Path    : /usr/bin/dateutils.dsort
Package : dateutils
Home    : http://www.fresse.org/dateutils
Version : 0.3.1
Type    : ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 ( ...)
Help    : probably available with -h,--help
Home    : https://github.com/hroptatyr/dateutils (doc)

This is from my system:
Code:
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 3.16.0-7-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian 8.11 (jessie)

ALthough this has been solved, if I get some time I'll try to post a solution with dateutils ... cheers, drl
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