Consider this example data set: Aptenodytes forsteri Miller,JF 1778 EmperorĮudyptula minor Bonaparte 1867 Little Blue This is such a common data format for spreadsheet exports that the CSV (comma-separated values) file extension exists to identify such files (although a CSV file doesn't have to be comma-separated, nor does a delimited file have to use the CSV extension to be valid and usable). Imagine, for instance, a list of animals and each one's species and genus, and each 'field' (a 'cell' in a spreadsheet) is defined by a predictable delimiter character. Sort is a filter, so if you want to preserve your data in its sorted form, you must redirect the output using either > or tee: $ sort distro.list | tee distro.sortedĬomplex data sets sometimes need to be sorted by something other than the first letter of each line. Using sort doesn't change the original file. In the event that two characters on multiple lines are the same, it considers the next character.

The sort command, by default, looks at the first character of each line of a file and outputs each line in ascending alphabetic order. I'll attempt to account for both GNU and BSD implementations in this article. On other POSIX systems, such as BSD and Mac, the default sort command is not from GNU, so some options may differ. On most Linux systems, the sort command is bundled in a collection of utilities from the GNU organization.

You don't need to install sort because it's invariably included on any POSIX system.

Free online course: RHEL Technical Overview.

Common mac terminal commands