sort numerically based on the first column

Question

I have a tsv separated file, which i try to sort. I use sort -k1,1n, in order to sort numerically, on the first column.

but the result i get is the following, which is not what i wanted:

    061     data1
    2305    data2
    4080    data3
    9251    data4
    11844   data5
    238 data6
    264 data7
    33940   data8
    439 data9
    5640    otherdata
    682 help
    1264    moredata

expected output:

    061     data1
    238     data6
    264     data7
    439     data9
    682     help
    1264    moredata        
    2305    data2
    4080    data3
    5640    otherdata
    9251    data4
    11844   data5
    33940   data8

Answer 1

sort reads from stdin and command-line as well. Thus if you have a file you can:

sort < file
# or
sort file

if you want sort based on first column you can:

sort -k1 < file

But if fact it does affect the output since by default it does not care about numerical order. Thus you should add -n option:

  -n, --numeric-sort          compare according to string numerical value

and doing it like:

sort -k1 -n < file

it outputs:

061     data1
238 data6
264 data7
439 data9
682 help
1264    moredata
2305    data2
4080    data3
5640    otherdata
9251    data4
11844   data5
33940   data8

and if you provide it with -r it print in reverse order:

33940   data8
11844   data5
9251    data4
5640    otherdata
4080    data3
2305    data2
1264    moredata
682 help
439 data9
264 data7
238 data6
061     data1

Answer 2

sort -k1 -n -t $'\t' input_file.tsv