Sorting text files (sort command)

Use the sort command to alphabetize lines in the files specified by the File parameters and write the result to standard output.

If the File parameter specifies more than one file, the sort command concatenates the files and alphabetizes them as one file.

Note: The sort command is case-sensitive and orders uppercase letters before lowercase (this behavior is dependent on the locale).

In the following examples, the contents of the file named names are:

marta
denise
joyce
endrica
melanie

and the contents of the file named states are:

texas
colorado
ohio

To display the sorted contents of the file named names, type the following:
```
sort names
```
The system displays information similar to the following:
```
denise
endrica
joyce
marta
melanie
```
To display the sorted contents of the names and states files, type the following:
```
sort names states
```
The system displays information similar to the following:
```
colorado
denise
endrica
joyce
marta
melanie
ohio
texas
```
To replace the original contents of the file named names with its sorted contents, type the following:
```
sort -o names names
```
This replaces the contents of the names file with the same data but in sorted order.

See the sort command in the Commands Reference, Volume 5 for the complete syntax.