Hello.

I sorted a large mailing list and the result is in almost sorted order, but not quite. The sort was invoked in the default manner, just "sort". See (below) a segment of the output file. (Note: the actual files have a street address following each name. I have omitted the addresses to avoid complaints about disclosing personal information on-line.)

I expect all people named KATZ to be grouped together, but they aren't. This phenomenon occurs elsewhere in the output file, so it has nothing to do with surnames beginning with the character string KATZ.

Please explain.

Daniel B. Martin

KATZ, ALISON B ~ 123 MAIN ST
KATZ, ARTHUR J ~ 456 MAIN ST
KATZ, CATHERINE AMMA ~ (et cetera)
KATZ, CHARLA EVANS ~ (et cetera)
KATZ, CHARLENE LOUISE ~
KATZ, CHLOE ALEXANDRA ~
KATZENBACH, DANIEL G
KATZENBACH, KEENA P
KATZENBERGER, HEATHER FOX
KATZENELSON, JONATHAN
KATZENELSON, SUSAN
KATZENMAIER, JONATHAN NIEL
KATZENMAIER, SUSAN ELIZABETH
KATZENSTEIN, LORI ARRINGTON
KATZENSTEIN, STEVEN DANIEL
KATZ, FRANCES T
KATZ, GEORGE
KATZ, GERTRUDE
KATZMAYR, CARISSA
KATZMAYR, LINDA BOZENBURY
KATZMAYR, PETER BRIAN
KATZ, MEGAN MURRAY
KATZ, MICHAEL D
KATZ, RACHEL LEEANN

Hi,

This behavior is caused by your locale setting (see the sort man page).

LC_ALL=C sort file should work as you expect.

Hope this helps.

2 members found this post helpful.

The default is sorting the entire line - not just the first field.

You can do field sort with:
sort -k1,1 -t,

The -k1,1 says to sort on the first field and the -t, says to use comma as the field separator.

1 members found this post helpful.

This works! Thank you!

Daniel B. Martin

1 members found this post helpful.

This works! Thank you!

Daniel B. Martin

You're welcome