Command: sort
Sort is used to sort the input file. Lines of input are taken from
the file named on the sort command or if no file is given, input is
taken from standard input.
Syntax:
sort [/R] [/N] [/+num] [/A] [/?] [drive][path]filename
command | sort [/R] [/N] [/A] [/+num] [/?]
drive The drive letter, e.g. C:
path The directory, e.g. \example\
filename The driver (file) to load, e.g. unordered.txt
Options:
/R Sort in reverse order (Z - A).
/A Sort by ASCII, instead of COUNTRY sort order.
/N Enables NLS (national language support).
/+num Start sorting with column num in each line of text. Default=1.
/? Shows the help.
/? Shows the help.
Comments:
SORT does not change the input file, only the output.
SORT supports NLS (national language support).
Known bugs:
This version of sort only uses conventional ram and does not do
an out-of-memory sort, so it is limited to what can fit in available
memory. The maximum record length is 1000 characters and the maximum
number of records that can be sorted is 10,000. This does not mean
that you will be able to sort 10,000 records of 1000 characters each,
since you would run out of memory before you read all of the data in.
Examples:
Example 1:
dir | sort
Displays the current directory in alphabetical order (A-Z):
dir | sort /r
Displays the current directory in reverse order (Z-A):
When the simple "dir" command has pauses while showing all files, the
sort command also expects these pauses (and several space bars), shows
NOTHING till the last space bar is pressed. Please keep this in mind.
Example 2:
sort file1 OR:
sort <file1
Sorts the contents of file1 using the entire line as the sort key.
Example 3:
sort /R /+21 <file1
Sorts file1 in reverse order (Z-A) based on the key starting in
column 21.
Example 4:
sort /+2 c:\tmp\foobar.dat >b:\data.out
Sorts c:\tmp\foobar.dat using the key in column 2 and put the output
on a file called data.out residing on the B: floppy drive.
Example 5:
In command line:
sort -ENTER- (alternative: sort /+2)
this -ENTER-
is -ENTER-
a -ENTER-
short -ENTER-
sentence -ENTER-
(CTRL-Z) Exits the command and executes it.
PLEASE CHECK IF "Z" IS SHOWN at CTRL-Z, otherwise it will not exit
and execute the command!
(No /+2) gives out : (With /+2) sorted by second letter per line:
a a ("a")
is sentence ("e")
sentence this ("h"i)
short short ("h"o)
this is ("s")
See also:
country
codepage
find
more
type
Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall, updated 2011 and 2022 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.