Lum – Sort one column only, keeping remaining columns untouched

Specify the sort keys separately with the criteria:

sort -k1,1nr -k2,2 inputfile

This specifies that the first key is sorted numerically in reverse order while the second is sorted as per the default sort order.

Quoting from POSIX sort:

-k keydef

The keydef argument is a restricted sort key field definition. The format of this definition is:

field_start[type][,field_end[type]]

where field_start and field_end define a key field restricted to a portion of the line (see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section), and type is a modifier from the list of characters 'b', 'd', 'f', 'i', 'n', 'r'. The 'b' modifier shall behave like the -b option, but shall apply only to the field_start or field_end to which it is attached. The other modifiers shall behave like the corresponding options, but shall apply only to the key field to which they are attached; they shall have this effect if specified with field_start, field_end, or both. If any modifier is attached to a field_start or to a field_end, no option shall apply to either. Implementations shall support at least nine occurrences of the -k option, which shall be significant in command line order. If no -k option is specified, a default sort key of the entire line shall be used.

When there are multiple key fields, later keys shall be compared only after all earlier keys compare equal. Except when the -u option is specified, lines that otherwise compare equal shall be ordered as if none of the options -d, -f, -i, -n, or -k were present (but with -r still in effect, if it was specified) and with all bytes in the lines significant to the comparison. The order in which lines that still compare equal are written is unspecified.

This would produce:

42 Life
17 Stackoverflow
12 Hi
9  LaTeX
9  Superuser
9  Ubuntu
7  C++
7  Hash

A solution in perl:

$ perl -anle '
    push @h, [$F[-1],$_];
    END {
        print for map  { $_->[0] }
                  sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] }
                  map  { [$_->[1],hex($_->[0])] } @h;
    }
' file
4 jjk 7
5 hhf 25
2 ukr 9f
3 ezh ae
1 hdh d12

Explanation

• While processing file, we create an array of array @h, each of its element is an array reference [$F[-1],$_], with first element is the hex value to compare, and the second element is the whole line.

• In END block, we use Schwartzian transform:

  • With each element of @h, create an anonymous array, contains the whole line ( $_->[1] the second element of each array ref in @h ) and the hex value to compare hex($_->[0])]

  • Sort above array base on the hex value $a->[1] <=> $b->[1]

  • Get the first element of each array ref in sorted array map { $_->[0] } then print the result.

Update

With @Joseph R's suggestion, without using Schwartzian Transform:

$ perl -anle '
    push @h, [hex($F[-1]),$_];
    END {
        print $_->[1] for
            sort { $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] } @h;
    }
' file

Update 2

After reading stefan's comment, I think this can call direct:

$ perl -e '
    print sort {hex((split(/\s+/,$a))[-1]) <=> hex((split(/\s+/,$b))[-1])} <>;
' file
4 jjk 7
5 hhf 25
2 ukr 9f
3 ezh ae
1 hdh d12