data in ascending or descending order sorter.py --input=$input --out_file1=$out_file1 --column=$column --style=$style --order=$order #for $col in $column_set: ${col.other_column} ${col.other_style} ${col.other_order} #end for Numerical sort Alphabetical sort Descending order Ascending order Numerical sort Alphabetical sort Descending order Ascending order

.. class:: infomark **TIP:** If your data is not TAB delimited, use *Text Manipulation->Convert* ----- **Syntax** This tool sorts the dataset on any number of columns in either ascending or descending order. * Numerical sort orders numbers by their magnitude, ignores all characters besides numbers, and evaluates a string of numbers to the value they signify. * Alphabetical sort is a phonebook type sort based on the conventional order of letters in an alphabet. Each nth letter is compared with the nth letter of other words in the list, starting at the first letter of each word and advancing to the second, third, fourth, and so on, until the order is established. Therefore, in an alphabetical sort, 2 comes after 100 (1 < 2). ----- **Examples** The list of numbers 4,17,3,5 collates to 3,4,5,17 by numerical sorting, while it collates to 17,3,4,5 by alphabetical sorting. Sorting the following:: Q d 7 II jhu 45 A kk 4 I h 111 Pd p 1 ktY WS 113 A g 10 H ZZ 856 A edf 4 tw b 234 BBB rt 10 H ZZ 100 A rew 10 d b 1111 C sd 19 YH aa 10 Hah c 23 ver bb 467 MN gtr 1 a X 32 N j 9 a T 205 BBB rrf 10 b Z 134 odfr ws 6 Weg dew 201 C f 3 WW SW 34 A jhg 4 I b 345 Pd gf 7 Gthe de 567 rS hty 90 YY LOp 89 A g 10 H h 43 A g 4 I h 500 on columns 1 (alpha), 3 (num), and 6 (num) in ascending order will yield:: A kk 4 I h 111 A edf 4 tw b 234 A jhg 4 I b 345 A g 4 I h 500 A g 10 H h 43 A g 10 H ZZ 856 A rew 10 d b 1111 BBB rt 10 H ZZ 100 BBB rrf 10 b Z 134 C f 3 WW SW 34 C sd 19 YH aa 10 Hah c 23 ver bb 467 MN gtr 1 a X 32 N j 9 a T 205 odfr ws 6 Weg dew 201 Pd p 1 ktY WS 113 Pd gf 7 Gthe de 567 Q d 7 II jhu 45 rS hty 90 YY LOp 89