Insight: Get Organized with the sort Command in Ubuntu

Insight: Get Organized with the sort Command in Ubuntu

Hey there, new Ubuntu users! So you've just started your journey into the wonderful world of Linux, and things might feel a little different than what you're used to. Don't worry, we're here to help you navigate the command line, one powerful tool at a time. Today, we're going to talk about a super handy command called sort.

Think of sort as your personal data organizer. Whether you're dealing with lists of names, numbers, or even lines of code, sort can quickly arrange them in a way that makes sense to you. Let's dive in!

What Does sort Do?

At its core, the sort command takes lines of text from a file (or even directly from your keyboard) and outputs them in a sorted order. By default, it sorts alphabetically and numerically, in ascending order.

Your First sort Command

Let's start with a simple example. Open your terminal (you can usually find it by searching for "terminal" in your applications or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T).

First, let's create a simple file with some unsorted names. Type the following lines into your terminal, pressing Enter after each name, and then Ctrl+D to save the file.

Bash

cat > names.txt 
Charlie 
Alice 
Bob 
David 
Frank
Eve

Now, let's see sort in action!

Bash

sort names.txt  

You should see something like this:

Bash

Alice 
Bob 
Charlie 
David 
Eve 
Frank  

Voila! Our names are now perfectly sorted alphabetically.

Common sort Options

sort is much more versatile than just basic alphabetization. Let's explore some common options that will make your life easier:

1. Reverse Sort (-r)

Want to sort in descending order? No problem! Just use the -r (reverse) option:

Bash

sudo apt update   

Output:

Bash

Frank 
Eve 
David 
Charlie 
Bob 
Alice

2. Numeric Sort (-n)

When you're dealing with numbers, sort might treat them as text by default. This can lead to unexpected results (e.g., "10" appearing before "2"). To ensure sort understands they are numbers, use the -n (numeric) option:

Let's create a file with some numbers:

Bash

cat > numbers.txt 
10 
2 
100 
5 
20  

Now, try sort without -n:

Bash

sort numbers.txt 

Output (not what we want!):

Bash

10 
100
2 
20
5

Now, with -n:

Bash

sort -n numbers.txt  

Output (now it's correct!):

Bash

2 
5 
10 
20 
100   

3. Unique Lines (-u)

Sometimes your file might have duplicate lines, and you only want to see the unique ones. The -u (unique) option is perfect for this:

Let's create a file with duplicates:

Bash

cat > duplicates.txt 
apple 
banana 
apple 
orange 
banana 

Now, use sort -u:

Bash

sort -u duplicates.txt

Output:

Bash

apple 
banana 
orange 

Notice how sort -u also sorts the output by default.

4. Human Numeric Sort (-h)

If you're dealing with file sizes (like in ls -lh output) or other human-readable numbers with suffixes (K, M, G), the -h (human numeric sort) option comes in handy:

Let's imagine an file called filesizes.txt containing these lines:

Bash

100M 
2G 
500K 
1M  

Now sort this list in human-readable format:

Bash

sort -h filesizes.txt  

Output:

Bash

500K 
1M 
100M 
2G  

This correctly understands the magnitudes of the sizes.

Combining Options

You can combine multiple options with sort. For example, to sort numbers in reverse order and get only unique values:

Bash

sort -nr unique_numbers.txt  

Where Else Can You Use sort?

The beauty of the Linux command line is how commands can be chained together using a feature called "pipes", which uses the | keyboard symbol. This means the output of one command can become the input of another.

For example, you could list the files in your current directory and then sort them:

Bash

ls -l | sort -k 9  

This specific example sorts the output of ls -l by the 9th column, which is often the filename. Don't worry if this looks a bit advanced for now, just know the possibilities are endless!

Practice Makes Perfect!

The best way to learn these commands is to play around with them. Create your own text files with different kinds of data and experiment with the various sort options. The man sort command will give you a comprehensive list of all available options (press q to exit the man page).

You'll quickly find that sort becomes an indispensable tool for managing and understanding your data in the Linux environment. Happy sorting!

Need Ubuntu Expertise?

We'd love to help you with your Ubuntu projects.  Feel free to reach out to us at info@pacificw.com.

Written by Aaron Rose, software engineer and technology writer at Tech-Reader.blog.