how to sort this .txt file
 

Hi, I have this .txt file

3183630 R
3574216 W
5264994 M
2656889 A

I want to sort it by the numerical order of column. After sort, I wish to get output like

2656889 A
3183630 R
3574216 W
5264994 M

anyone knows how to use sort to do that? or any other command?

thanks a lot

sort -n


man sort
for details


Cheers,
Tink

Hi, Tink

Thanks for your response. I used

sort +0 -1 input.txt > output.txt

but it can't sort the first column by numerical order... It seems treating the 1st column as characters. For example, after running my command, I got this

1001084 R
10011 R
10012 S
1003918 R
1004172 R
1005844 S
100707 S
1011598 R
1013262 R
1020374 W

Do you know the right option I should use with sort?

Thanks

cliffyao, did you indeed read the entire Tinkster's post?

Have you tried what Tinkster suggested? sort -n forces numerical order.

Edit: repetita iuvant.. ;)

oops, my bad..I thought "sort -n" is like sort the nth column, just like my "sort -1". Tink, sorry for misunderstanding your post.

I tried

sort -n input.txt > output.txt

and it is working.

But, how about if my numbers are not in the first column?

Thanks everbody.

Read the rest of Tinkster's post, run man sort and search for -k switch (--key).