[SOLVED] What is the default order for sort?

Issue

Given(a.txt):

2n 
4t 
7t 
11t 

After:

sort a.txt

OutPut:

11t 
2n 
4t 
7t 

Question:

why is this order? what is the sort based on? (number or other?)

And when i try to give this input:

2
4
7
11
20
30

Output give me this order:

11
2
20
30
4
7

So confused, why is 11 always the 1st?

Solution

From man sort:

The sort utility sorts text and binary files by lines. A line is a record separated from the subsequent record by a newline (default) or NUL '\0' character (-z option). A record can contain any printable or unprintable characters. Comparisons are based on one or more sort keys extracted from each line of input, and are performed lexicographically, according to the current locale's collating rules and the specified command-line options that can tune the actual sorting behavior. By default, if keys are not given, sort uses entire lines for comparison.

sort is using alphabetical (lexicographic) order by default. If you want your file to be sorted numerically, use sort -n.

Regarding your specific question about why 11 is coming before 2 in the sorted output:

• lexicographically, any string starting with 1 will always be less than any string that starts with 2
• sort is not using numeric order by default

You can see the ASCII values of 1 and 2:

printf '%d\n' "'1" "'2"
49
50

Answered By - codeforester

Answer Checked By - Mildred Charles (WPSolving Admin)