Dear All,

I indeed need your help for my research data file. I have a question about how to make our data consecutive.

For example I have data like:

id type-of-atoms energy

1 Si 45

3 O 23

5 Si 42

4 Si 12

2 H 10


how to change my data to :

id type-of-atoms energy

1 Si 45

2 H 10

3 O 23

4 Si 12

5 Si 42


thank you very much for all helps.

Mauludi

You didn't mention what type of data file you have, but if it's text, the sort command should work.

yes it is a text file

Ok.......did you try the sort command as suggested?

sorry, actualy example I mention above is not my real data, but the goal is the same, I want to have the first column consecutive..
after trying "sort command" I found part of my real data like below.
please see first column, it is not fully order. How to fix it?

1000 2 0.248762 0.551637 0.700014 13.5078 29.9539 38.0107 0.00290278 -104.335 2
1001 2 0.2245 0.526512 0.725539 12.1903 28.5896 39.3968 0.000248062 -104.665 2
1002 2 0.273159 0.574901 0.725091 14.8325 31.2171 39.3724 -0.0016636 -104.655 2
100 3 0.255067 0.246316 0.509907 13.8502 13.375 27.688 0.305618 -80.6206 3
1003 2 0.29817 0.50134 0.700065 16.1906 27.2227 38.0136 0.000511279 -104.64 2
1004 2 0.348057 0.550705 0.702942 18.8995 29.9033 38.1697 0.000560667 -104.646 2
1005 2 0.322922 0.524964 0.725336 17.5347 28.5055 39.3857 -0.00037471 -104.773 2
1006 2 0.374066 0.574454 0.727417 20.3118 31.1929 39.4988 6.43107e-06 -104.176 2
1007 2 0.396905 0.499235 0.701148 21.552 27.1085 38.0723 -0.00213138 -103.86 2
1008 2 0.447444 0.550564 0.702005 24.2962 29.8956 38.1189 0.00475884 -103.317 2
1009 2 0.423292 0.524987 0.724505 22.9848 28.5068 39.3406 0.000565073 -104.153 2
1010 2 0.473879 0.576283 0.725755 25.7316 31.2922 39.4085 0.00280028 -103.934 2
1011 2 1.00032 0.60085 0.702084 54.3172 32.6261 38.1232 0.000585666 -104.059 2
1012 2 0.0494911 0.650394 0.702936 2.68736 35.3164 38.1694 0.00263579 -103.903 2
1013 2 0.0248389 0.626711 0.726759 1.34875 34.0304 39.463 -0.000315563 -103.828 2
101 4 0.228359 0.224664 0.535099 12.3999 12.1992 29.0559 0.0586548 -97.838 4

Try the -n option for a numeric sort. "man sort" for all the options.

I found the same result

I put your data into a file and then ran "sort -n filename". It listed everything in numerical order based on the first column. 100, 101, 1000, 1001, 1002,....etc.

Please post the exact command you are using

ok, I know my mistake, I used sort keys. Now is okay.
thank you for your help.

sorry , I also wonder how "sort -n filename" command can change first column only where as it does not mention which column.
why not "sort -n -1 filename" ?. If I want to make second column consecutive rather than first column what should I write?

thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.