CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashsorting
Tiago Lopo
Tiago Lopo

Reputation: 7959

Sort command not working properly, bug or feature?

Sort command not working properly when using comma as field separator:

File: 

cat /tmp/2.csv 
66.199.199.221,115645,0
207.233.77.147,120167,0
204.38.48.1,125767,0
83.144.97.50,127944,3
12.174.177.15,134080,0
195.76.177.90,138124,0
50.202.17.163,162618,0
66.64.209.30,163729,0
40.76.63.140,181976,0
207.241.237.163,2226,1854

Observe line 207.241.237.163,2226,1854:

Sorting: 

sort -t, -nk 2  /tmp/2.csv 
66.199.199.221,115645,0
207.233.77.147,120167,0
204.38.48.1,125767,0
83.144.97.50,127944,3
12.174.177.15,134080,0
195.76.177.90,138124,0
50.202.17.163,162618,0
66.64.209.30,163729,0
40.76.63.140,181976,0
207.241.237.163,2226,1854

But it works fine when using TSV: 

sort -nk 2  /tmp/3.tsv 
207.241.237.163 2226    1854
66.199.199.221  115645  0
207.233.77.147  120167  0
204.38.48.1     125767  0
83.144.97.50    127944  3
12.174.177.15   134080  0
195.76.177.90   138124  0
50.202.17.163   162618  0
66.64.209.30    163729  0
40.76.63.140    181976  0

Tested with different versions of sort: 

sort --version
sort (GNU coreutils) 8.21
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

And : 

sort (GNU coreutils) 8.4
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 279

Answers (1)

heemayl
heemayl

Reputation: 41987

You need to set the key for only the second field i.e. -k2,2, otherwise if you use -k2 all fields starting from second till end are treated as keys.

Working one :

$ sort -t, -k2,2n file.txt 
207.241.237.163,2226,1854
66.199.199.221,115645,0
207.233.77.147,120167,0
204.38.48.1,125767,0
83.144.97.50,127944,3
12.174.177.15,134080,0
195.76.177.90,138124,0
50.202.17.163,162618,0
66.64.209.30,163729,0
40.76.63.140,181976,0

Non-working one :

$ sort -t, -k2n file.txt 
66.199.199.221,115645,0
207.233.77.147,120167,0
204.38.48.1,125767,0
83.144.97.50,127944,3
12.174.177.15,134080,0
195.76.177.90,138124,0
50.202.17.163,162618,0
66.64.209.30,163729,0
40.76.63.140,181976,0
207.241.237.163,2226,1854

Upvotes: 4

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