[SOLVED] Sorting a Dictionary File

dougp25 · 11-01-2010, 05:53 PM

I have this dictionary file that has this format:

SUBSTITUTE_VALUE, Real Value
SUBSTITUTE_VALUE_2, Real Big Value
SUBSTITUTE_VALUE_HECL, Hardware Abstract
SUBSTITUTE_V, Valley Mem

I want to sort this file so the LONGEST Substitute Values are listed at the top. (Obviously I want to keep the related values tagging along with them)!

Playing with sort but that's not getting me there! Graciously asking for some help!

colucix · 11-01-2010, 06:22 PM

Maybe this is not exactly what you're looking for (I guess you have a lot of different keys, not only "SUBSTITUTE_VALUE") but it may give you a clue:

Code:

awk -F, '{print length($1), $0}' file | sort -k1nr | cut -d' ' -f2-

dougp25 · 11-01-2010, 06:29 PM

That's pretty close! It's just kind of strange because here and there, there's a value that's shorter than the one above and below it... But it's very close!
It doesn't have to be an alphabetical sort based on the first field either, sorted, my example file should look like:

SUBSTITUTE_VALUE_HECL, Hardware Abstract
SUBSTITUTE_VALUE_2, Real Big Value
SUBSTITUTE_VALUE, Real Value
SUBSTITUTE_V, Valley Mem

SUBSTITUTE_V would still be the last entry, even if it looked like this

SUBSTITUTE_V, Valley Memory Field Leak Protector Hex FF
(since we don't really care about the value of field2)

dougp25 · 11-01-2010, 06:40 PM

Perfect, I got it! Thanks colucix! My field separator wasn't a comma, and I needed to redirect output to a new file, but pretty slick all the same!

Thanks again.

colucix · 11-02-2010, 01:29 AM

You're welcome! I'm glad to see it works as required.