Hi,

I need to sort a numeric file but my sort command seems doesn't work!

When I use the command:
>sort -n infile
or
>sort -g infile

I obtain the same result that
>sort infile

That means that I get an alphabetically ordered file even if the file is a list of numbers.
I can't figure out what's the problem....could someone halp me, please?

My sort varsion is:
sort (coreutils) 5.2.1
Written by Mike Haertel and Paul Eggert.

Thank you !

hmm... maybe we need to see a snippet of the file. Are all the number on one line? Seems to work for me... here's the file I used:

... and the output:
are you getting something else?

This is an example of in_file

2.26102e-10
5.28728e-05
1.43164e-05
1.43164e-05
1.99507e-11
2.79948e-12
4.90768e-10
2.34509e-13
1.32265e-12
8.57706e-16
9.83975e-12
1.81137e-05
9.16633e-16
2.81432e-05
2.81432e-05
0.000318926
6.34414e-06
0.000487889
4.01249e-16
2.82483e-06
4.09477e-09
4.09477e-09
1.09976e-05
5.26564e-03
1.08076e-09
2.54978e-10
1.94235e-08
0.000315027
0.000315027
5.14266e-07
6.51105e-02
8.51396e-07
3.42159e-09
1.42678e-08

When I use the command:
>sort -g in_file
I get...
0.000315027
0.000315027
0.000318926
0.000487889
1.08076e-09
1.09976e-05
1.32265e-12
1.42678e-08
1.43164e-05
1.43164e-05
1.81137e-05
1.94235e-08
1.99507e-11
2.26102e-10
2.34509e-13
2.54978e-10
2.79948e-12
2.81432e-05
2.81432e-05
2.82483e-06
3.42159e-09
4.01249e-16
4.09477e-09
4.09477e-09
4.90768e-10
5.14266e-07
5.26564e-03
5.28728e-05
6.34414e-06
6.51105e-02
8.51396e-07
8.57706e-16
9.16633e-16
9.83975e-12

When I use the command:
>sort -n in_file
I get...the same

0.000315027
0.000315027
0.000318926
0.000487889
1.08076e-09
1.09976e-05
1.32265e-12
1.42678e-08
1.43164e-05
1.43164e-05
1.81137e-05
1.94235e-08
1.99507e-11
2.26102e-10
2.34509e-13
2.54978e-10
2.79948e-12
2.81432e-05
2.81432e-05
2.82483e-06
3.42159e-09
4.01249e-16
4.09477e-09
4.09477e-09
4.90768e-10
5.14266e-07
5.26564e-03
5.28728e-05
6.34414e-06
6.51105e-02
8.51396e-07
8.57706e-16
9.16633e-16
9.83975e-12

the same if I use : sort in_file

It seems to me that options -g or -n doesn't work...

what's the problem? it seems to be sorted properly.

that's very odd. -g is supposed to recognize scientific notation, and it does on my machine:

don't know why yours isn't working? I'm using sort (GNU coreutils) 5.97
on Debian 4.0 (etch)

oic it's the scientific notation . my mistake. perhaps as also BrianK is asking about versions, your sort command has no support of scientific notations in that version. Or perhaps it was compiled with disabled support for scientific notations. Try to recompile looking for options that enable support for such or try using newer versions of coreutils.

CentOS is version 5.97 too btw

Edit - and it sorts scientific notation fine

ok.. and mistakes in library support too? perhaps?