How to sort contents of a file

sort command is used to sort the contents of a file. You can sort the data in text file and display the output on the screen, or redirect it to a file. Based on your requirement, sort provides several command line options for sorting data in a text file.

Syntax:
sort [options] filename

Examples:

#1 To sort text file [sort sort_file]

#2 To sort numbers in file, use -n option [sort -n sort_number_file]


#3 To sort months in file, use -M option [sort -M sort_month_file]

Refer below tables for more sort command options:

-b	Ignores leading spaces in each line
-d	Uses dictionary sort order. Conisders only spaces and alphanumeric characters in sorting
-f	Uses case insensitive sorting.
-M	Sorts based on months.  Either mention complete month name or only first 3 letters. Eg: JAN, FEB
-n	Uses numeric sorting
-R	Sorts the input file randomly.
-r	Reverse order sorting
-k	Sorts file based on the data in the specified field positions.
-u	Suppresses duplicate lines
-t	input field separator