Re: Selecting multiple delimiters in sort

[Bob Proulx]

tolugboji via GNU coreutils General Discussion wrote:
> If "sort" did support multiple delimiters, I could numerically sort the 
> following set of filenames
> using the second field.
> 
> schimmel-04.png
> schimmel-05.png
> schimmel-06.png
> schimmel-07.png
> schimmel-08.png
> schimmel-09.png
> schimmel-10.png
> schimmel-11.png
> schimmel-12.png
> schimmel-13.png
> schimmel-1.png
> schimmel-2.png
> schimmel-3.png

One can sort those using a numeric sort.

    $ sort -t- -k1,1 -k2,2n file1
    schimmel-1.png
    schimmel-2.png
    schimmel-3.png
    schimmel-04.png
    schimmel-05.png
    schimmel-06.png
    schimmel-07.png
    schimmel-08.png
    schimmel-09.png
    schimmel-10.png
    schimmel-11.png
    schimmel-12.png
    schimmel-13.png

Or as a non-standard extension use --version-sort.

    $ sort --version-sort file1
    schimmel-1.png
    schimmel-2.png
    schimmel-3.png
    schimmel-04.png
    schimmel-05.png
    schimmel-06.png
    schimmel-07.png
    schimmel-08.png
    schimmel-09.png
    schimmel-10.png
    schimmel-11.png
    schimmel-12.png
    schimmel-13.png

I say non-standard but it exists in GNU and FreeBSD so that may be
portable enough.  But it does not exist on NetBSD for example.  So
some caution for portability is required.

Bob