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I wish to sort the TSV file below (called min_ex) by the first column lexicographically and by the second column numerically.

A X, N    2.2
A, N    5.7
A, A    5.8
A, N    2.1
A, T    0.2
B G, M    2.3
B, L    0.1
B, I    0.2
B, M    9.3
B, C    9.9

I tried to do it with sort -k1,2 -n min_ex. but it doesn't work as it results in:

A, A    5.8
A, N    2.1
A, N    5.7
A, T    0.2
A X, N    2.2
B, C    9.9
B G, M    2.3
B, I    0.2
B, L    0.1
B, M    9.3

I also think am also pretty sure (through experimentation) that sort is taking any blank space as the delimiter, but I don't see an option to set the separators.

I'd like to have solutions using either pure AWK or no-sed at all (preferably both, separately), and I'd like to remain as POSIX compliant as possible.

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  • 1
    Could you clarify what’s wrong about the sort order used in your example output? It seems to be sorted correctly...
    – Stephen Kitt
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:09
  • @StephenKitt Take for instance the first key, the first element is A. Then, in this group, I'm getting 5.8>2.1>5.7.
    – user330157
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:18
  • Oh, OK, so really you want to sort by the first field lexicographically, using tabs, spaces and commas as separators, and by the last field numerically; does that reflect your intentions more accurately? (“First field” in a tab-separated file means that your first field here is “A, A”, “A, N” etc., not just “A”.)
    – Stephen Kitt
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:22
  • It does reflect what I wrote more accurately, but not my intentions. I made a mistake. Please give me a few minutes to rethink this. @StephenKitt
    – user330157
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:24
  • @StephenKitt I asked the wrong question. Thank you.
    – user330157
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:31

1 Answer 1

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sort -t$'\t' -k1,1 -k2,2n

does the trick, and it’s POSIX-compliant apart from the $'\t' part. -t specifies the field delimiter (instead of blank-to-non-blank transitions, which is the default); the n suffix can be applied to single field definitions.

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5
  • Given this exchange of comments, perhaps it is important to mention that I'm on WSL (Ubuntu distro). Is this something I should be adding to the question?
    – user330157
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:05
  • @Kusalananda that’s a bit of a brown-paper-bag moment there (we need that as a hat this December)...
    – Stephen Kitt
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:08
  • Thank you. Any idea why sort -t$'\t' -nk2 min_ex does not sort by the numerical column?
    – user330157
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:32
  • @user330157 in the file you posted on filebin, you had your lines terminated by CR/LF (DOS mode), and 4 spaces instead of Tabs. I've already mentioned that in an answer, but I removed it, since it's not clear what your question is.
    – user313992
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:35
  • @user330157 also -nk2 is not the same as -kn2.
    – user313992
    Jan 7, 2019 at 10:45

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