Sort text file using bash sort

Question

I'm trying to sort the following file by date with earliest to latest: $NAME DIA

# Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume,Adj Close
01-10-2014,169.91,169.98,167.42,167.68,11019000,167.68
29-04-2014,164.62,165.27,164.49,165.00,4581400,163.40
17-10-2013,152.11,153.59,152.05,153.48,9916600,150.26
06-09-2013,149.70,149.97,147.77,149.09,9001900,145.68
02-11-2012,132.56,132.61,130.47,130.67,5141300,125.01
01-11-2012,131.02,132.44,130.97,131.98,3807400,126.27

sort -t- -k3 -k2 -k1 DIA.txt gets the year right but scrambles the month and day.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you show an example of what the result you got was vs what you expected? — FatalError
– FatalError, Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 19:16

David C. Rankin · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-02 19:29:43Z

1

This seems to produce correct output

sort -s -t- -k3,3 -k2,2 -k1,1

output:

$ sort -s -t- -k3,3 -k2,2 -k1,1 dia.txt
# Date,Open,High,Low,Close,Volume,Adj Close
01-11-2012,131.02,132.44,130.97,131.98,3807400,126.27
02-11-2012,132.56,132.61,130.47,130.67,5141300,125.01
06-09-2013,149.70,149.97,147.77,149.09,9001900,145.68
17-10-2013,152.11,153.59,152.05,153.48,9916600,150.26
29-04-2014,164.62,165.27,164.49,165.00,4581400,163.40
01-10-2014,169.91,169.98,167.42,167.68,11019000,167.68

edited Oct 2, 2014 at 19:29

David C. Rankin

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answered Oct 2, 2014 at 19:19

Vytenis Bivainis

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1 Comment

David C. Rankin Over a year ago

You may want to include the sorted output showing the output produced. I'll do it for you this time.

Till · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-02 19:16:46Z

0

I would try changing the date format first.

sed -r "s/(..)-(..)-(....)/\\3-\\2-\\1/" DIA.txt | sort

You can also change it back after sorting the lines.

sed -r "s/(..)-(..)-(....)/\\3-\\2-\\1/" DIA.txt | sort | sed -r "s/(....)-(..)-(..)/\\3-\\2-\\1/"

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 19:16

Till

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Comments

Benjamin Bannier · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-02 19:20:48Z

0

sort's -k flag only allows you to specify two columns that give the range of keys to use in the sort. Here you want to involve a third column before that. There is a special syntax to use an additional column to resolve ties (here between rows when sorting with column 3 and 2):

sort -t'-' -k3,2.1 d

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 19:20

Benjamin Bannier

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