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Hi,
I have a file full of this fields and rows:

Code:

0.269330|0.035118|0.526763|0.792274         0.33555|19.471911|51.844968|1631  ...
3.981490|5.062725|17.190744|111     0.000000|0.030234|0.000000|1631  ...
...

I'd like to sort EACH column individually based on the value after the third "|". This has to be done separately for each column. Is there anybody to help? BTW, the file is tab delimited.
Thanks

Please clarify what you are trying to do.

Do you want to know how to print the entire file sorted by a particular field?

Do you want to extract a single field and sort it?

Are all of the columns in sets of four fields separated by tabs with fields in each set separated by vertical bars? How many sets of four fields are present in your input file?

What is the maximum line length (in bytes) for your input file?

What operating system are you using?

Sure check out these examples of sorting on multiple fields:
http://tinyurl.com/lahsp4j
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Sorry if I didn't explain enough. My file has 41 fields and 60 rows. I have only inputed two rows and two columns in my last post. I don't want to sort based on a particular field but I'd like to sort each column by itself based on the number after third vertical bar on that column. I just wanted 41 sorted columns in my output. I'm using linux.
I'm sorry but I don't know how to get the maximum line length (in bytes) for my input file
Hope this helps

---------- Post updated at 06:12 PM ---------- Previous update was at 05:53 PM ----------

Thanks Spacebar for the links but I've checked those out! I don't want to sort the whole file based on any particular columns. All I need is to sort each column by its own as I explained in my last post. "sort" command only sorts based on specific columns.

Still not clear what you want...can you provide a sample of the input and the output desired...

Ok, let's make this simple. Here is two columns of my file:

Code:

2|3|40|50	  21|32|60|70
12|40|30|60	  34|21|50|80
43|33|20|21	  54|23|70|56

Here I sort each column based on the third number (bold after the second "|"):

Code:

43|33|20|21	34|21|50|80
12|40|30|60	21|32|60|70
2|3|40|50	54|23|70|56

Looks like all you need is... sort -t'|' -k3,3n file