Linux bash sorting in reverse order based on a column isn't working as expected

Question

I'm trying to sort a text file in the descending order based on the last column. It just doesn't seem to work.

cat 1.txt | sort -r -n -k 4,4

ACHG,89.46,0.08,34200
UUKJL,0.85,-15.00,200
NIMJKY,34.35,0.09,17700
TBBNHW,10.24,0.00,4600
JJkLEYE,73.67,0.48,25400

I've tried removing spaces just in case but, hasn't helped. Also, tried sorting by the other fields just to see but, ahve the same problem.

I just can't work out what is wrong with the command I've issued. Please could I request help with this one?

ah damn thing.. just couldn't think of the field separator... Assumed the default is comma. Thanks a million. I would've gone on & on trying different things except for the field separator. — usert4jju7
– usert4jju7, Commented May 25, 2020 at 7:46

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-25 07:48:20Z

3

Your command is almost right but it is missing field separator option -t that should set comma as field separator.

This should work for you:

sort -t, -rnk 4,4 1.txt

ACHG,89.46,0.08,34200
JJkLEYE,73.67,0.48,25400
NIMJKY,34.35,0.09,17700
TBBNHW,10.24,0.00,4600
UUKJL,0.85,-15.00,200

Note that there is no need to use cat | sort here.

answered May 25, 2020 at 7:48

anubhava

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