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Sort comand for Date

 
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# 1  
Old 12-03-2009
Sort comand for Date
Hi All,

I have two questions for sorting based on date.

Sample input:

Code:
2009/07/23 11:48:44|alpha
2009/07/23 11:48:44|gamme
2009/07/23 11:48:44|beta
2009/07/23 11:48:44|test
2009/07/23 11:48:44|data
2009/07/23 11:48:44|hello
2009/07/23 11:48:44|cat

Output:

Code:
2009/07/23 11:48:44|alpha
2009/07/23 11:48:44|beta
2009/07/23 11:48:44|cat
2009/07/23 11:48:44|data
2009/07/23 11:48:44|gamme
2009/07/23 11:48:44|hello
2009/07/23 11:48:44|test

Question1:

Since the date is in this format yyyy/mm/dd hh24:mm:ss, the simple sort command would sort it correctly. I tested it with many scenarios and as far as sort is concerned its correct. Please correct me if I have made a mistake in this.

Question2:

From the sample data, if the date is the same, the sorting takes the second field and sorts alphabetically.

I tried to avoid this by using
Code:
sort -t'|' +0 -1 test

and

Code:
sort -t'|' -k1,1 test

But the output is same as the command

Code:
sort -t'|' -k1 test

How to restrict this kind of sorting? I want to keep the order as it is in the file if the datestamp is the same

regards...
# 2  
Old 12-03-2009
Someone might know a way to accomplish this with sed or awk. Here's what I found with the sort command. Kinda strange behavior though.

Code:
data:
cat f1.dat
2009/07/23 11:48:44|alpha
2009/07/23 11:48:44|gamme
2009/12/23 11:48:44|beta
2009/11/23 11:48:44|test
2009/05/23 11:48:44|test
2009/07/23 11:48:44|data
1999/07/23 11:48:41|bbbb
1999/07/23 11:48:41|aaaa
2009/07/23 11:48:44|hello
2009/07/23 11:48:44|cat
2009/07/23 11:48:41|zulu
2008/07/23 11:48:41|zulu
2008/07/23 11:48:41|cccc

You'd think this would work but it doesn't

sort cmd:  sort -n -s -t '|' -k 1 f1.dat

output:
1999/07/23 11:48:41|bbbb
1999/07/23 11:48:41|aaaa
2008/07/23 11:48:41|zulu
2008/07/23 11:48:41|cccc
2009/07/23 11:48:44|alpha
2009/07/23 11:48:44|gamme
2009/12/23 11:48:44|beta
2009/11/23 11:48:44|test
2009/05/23 11:48:44|test
2009/07/23 11:48:44|data
2009/07/23 11:48:44|hello
2009/07/23 11:48:44|cat
2009/07/23 11:48:41|zulu

Ugly but it works
sort cmd:  sort -n      \
                -s      \
                -t      \
                -k 1.1  \
                -k 1.2  \
                -k 1.3  \
                -k 1.4  \
                -k 1.5  \
                -k 1.6  \
                -k 1.7  \
                -k 1.9  \
                -k 1.10 \
                -k 1.11 \
                -k 1.12 \
                -k 1.13 \
                -k 1.14 \
                -k 1.15 \
                -k 1.16 \
                -k 1.17 \
                -k 1.18 \
                -k 1.19 \
              f1.dat

output:
1999/07/23 11:48:41|bbbb
1999/07/23 11:48:41|aaaa
2008/07/23 11:48:41|zulu
2008/07/23 11:48:41|cccc
2009/05/23 11:48:44|test
2009/07/23 11:48:41|zulu
2009/07/23 11:48:44|alpha
2009/07/23 11:48:44|gamme
2009/07/23 11:48:44|data
2009/07/23 11:48:44|hello
2009/07/23 11:48:44|cat
2009/11/23 11:48:44|test
2009/12/23 11:48:44|beta

If we remove the \'s and :'s from the file:

data:
cat f2.dat
20090723114844|alpha
20090723114844|gamme
20091223114844|beta
20091123114844|test
20090523114844|test
20090723114844|data
19990723114841|bbbb
19990723114841|aaaa
20090723114844|hello
20090723114844|cat
20090723114841|zulu
20080723114841|zulu
20080723114841|cccc

this works:
sort cmd:  sort -n -s -t '|' -k 1 f2.dat

output:
19990723114841|bbbb
19990723114841|aaaa
20080723114841|zulu
20080723114841|cccc
20090523114844|test
20090723114841|zulu
20090723114844|alpha
20090723114844|gamme
20090723114844|data
20090723114844|hello
20090723114844|cat
20091123114844|test
20091223114844|beta

# 3  
Old 12-03-2009
quintet almost had it with
Code:
sort -t'|' -k1,1 test

if "-s" option can be added.

Problem with jsmithstl's sort attempts were the -n option and the lack of ending field "-k1" instead of "-k1,1". With the format of f2.dat, the none-digit character '|' stopped the numeric comparison so it worked.
# 4  
Old 12-03-2009
Nicely done. I even read the "end it at POS2" in the man page and glossed right over it.
 
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