UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am a new to Unix..

I am trying to sort a file that contains alphanumeric ..

I have tried the -n and -f and the file is not sorted in

correct alphabetical and number order...

Someone , please help.....

much apppreciated.....

thanks

Welcome to the world of unix!

Can you please be VERY specific when asking questions.
You will find quick/better answers when you define your
problem in detail. Can you tell us EXACTLY what you are
trying to do and what command you typed on the command
line and a few lines of your input file ?

Best Wishes!!

This is a sample of my input file...


99-xsdq0763 19-xsdq0533
04-xsdq0762 20-xsdq0551
05-xsdq0760 21-xsdq0550
06-xsd00z51 22-xsdq0850
07-xsuqcf02 23-xsdq0828
08-xsd00z12 24-xsdq0826

09-xsd00z43 25-xsdq0823
10-xsd00z35 26-xsdq0822
11-xsd00z50 27-xsdq0552
12-xsdqli01 28-xsdq0401
13-xsuqcf01 29-xsdq0750
14-xsdq0511 30-xsdq0728
15-xsdq0542 31-xsdq0726
16-xsd00e37 32-xsdq0723

I am told to sort this file in aphabetical/numeric order...

I tried

sort -nfd workfile

but the output is not in the corredt
alphabetical /numeric order...

A question for you.... are there two columns of data - or is each row considered one entry. These things are very important things to know as it is handled quite differently.

If each row if one entry....(which I doubt but here goes) - the sort function is the one you need and it is simply used in this syntax:

sort inputfile > outputfile

Now if there are indeed 2 columns - and you want all data listed into one column sorted ..... i.e

01-xdsabcd
02-xdsabce
.....

Then you need to get the data into one column to start with as the sort function will use the entire row as one entry or a number of fields within one entry - but won't separate them out.

There may be a way using just the sort function to separate the two fields per row into a single list but I don't know it.

To get the data from the original file into a single list use this (there are heaps of ways to do this i.e. awk.....):

cut -c1-'11' inputfile > outputfile
cut -c'13'-'24' inputfile >> outputfile
sort outputfile > sorted_file

(You may or may not need to put the 11, 13 and 24 into quotes depending on your system.

This basically takes the first 11 characters on a row and puts it in a file. Then takes the next 11 (after the whitespace) and apends them to the end of this file. Then sorts the file in ascending order alphanumerically.

Hope this helps.