Re: How to sort alphabetically?

[Assaf Gordon]

Hello,

On 13/08/17 12:59 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
> Hi, "B" is listed before "a". Is there a way to sort alphabetically
> (as in an English dictionary)? (I think LC_* might need to be used,
> but I am not sure what value it should be.) Thanks.
> 
> $ printf '%s\n' a B c | sort
> B
> a
> c
> 

There are two issues at hand: locale and case-sensitivity.

You example appears to be in a C/POSIX locale
where characters are sorted by their ASCII value.
In this case, use "-f/--ignore-case" to ignore the upper/lower case:

  $ printf '%s\n' a B c | LC_ALL=C sort -f
  a
  B
  c

In many other locales, the ordering (often referred to as "collation")
already ignores upper/lower-case letters:

  $ printf '%s\n' a B c | LC_ALL=en_CA.UTF8 sort
  a
  B
  c

Setting LC_ALL affects all locale variables.
Use LC_COLLATE to change only the collation order
(however this is likely to cause confusion). Example:

  LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8 LC_COLLATE=C sort


If you are writing portable scripts and need consistent sorting
order output regardless of the system's locale, it is best
to set a specific locale (if you know it is available on the system),
or always use "LC_ALL=C" optionally with "sort -f".
Also see other sorting options such as -d/-b/-i which will affect ordering.

regards,
 - assaf