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How to sort the 6th field of tab delimited files?

 
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# 1  
Old 02-24-2014
Wrench How to sort the 6th field of tab delimited files?
Here's a sample of the data:

Code:
NAME   BIRTHDAY    SEX    LOCATION    AGE    ID
Jim       05/11/1986  M       Japan          27      86
Rei       08/25/1990  F        Korea          24     33
Jane     02/24/1985  F        India           29     78

I've been trying to sort files using the 6th field of the file using this command:

Code:
sort -t '\t' -k 6 -n test.txt > Sort.txt

how ever the result is not what i've been expecting. Smilie
I want to sort the IDs in ascending order Smilie

THanks!
Last edited by maihani; 02-25-2014 at 01:18 AM.. Reason: code tags
# 2  
Old 02-25-2014
Try this one :-
Code:
# sort -k 6 -n sort.unl 
NAME BIRTHDAY SEX LOCATION AGE ID
Rei 08/25/1990 F Korea 24 33
Jane 02/24/1985 F India 29 78
Jim 05/11/1986 M Japan 27 86

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 02-25-2014 at 12:34 AM.. Reason: code tags
# 3  
Old 02-25-2014
@maihani:
To use TAB as a field separator with sort, an actual TAB character needs to be entered using CTRL-V <TAB>
Code:
sort -t '    ' -nk6 file

or
Code:
sort -t "$(printf "\t")" -nk6 file

or if you are using bash or ksh93:
Code:
sort -t $'\t' -nk6 file

--
If there are no space characters in the fields, you could also leave it out, like sayami00 suggested..
# 4  
Old 02-25-2014
I don't know why but none of these are working for me Smilie

Thanks anyway...
# 5  
Old 02-25-2014
  • What isn't working for you?
  • What result were you expecting?
  • Are the fields in your file separated by actual TAB characters (I cannot tell from your sample)?
  • Could you attach the sample otherwise?
# 6  
Old 02-25-2014
With Attachment
Attached is my sample document.
I need to sort using the 6th field in ascending orders.

Thanks!
TEST_INT_test.txt (1.5 KB) 
Last edited by maihani; 02-25-2014 at 01:34 AM..
# 7  
Old 02-25-2014
Since column 6 is not the last column, try:
Code:
sort -t "$(printf "\t")" -nk6,6 file

What isn't working for you? What result were you expecting?

That document appears to be already sorted on the six column.
Code:
awk -F'\t' '{print $6}' ../Downloads/TEST_INT_test.txt 
CO_ENT_NBR
972
972
1521
1521
2863
2946
2946
2946
2946
10879
17950
17950
17950


When I jumble the lines first before sorting, the sort appears to work well
Last edited by Scrutinizer; 02-25-2014 at 04:50 AM..
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
maihani
 
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