Sort Command – Numerical Option Behavior Explained

sort

The two examples in the title produce very different results. The first (sort -k2,2 -nk6,6 foo) brings back the following results:

153759 townhome 900 2 1 79000
876543 townhome 745 2 1 79000
222999 townhome 850 2 2 83333
759153 condo 850 2 1.5 85000
453215 townhome 1000 3 1.5 86000
646484 condo 890 3 1 93333
444555 condo 930 2 1 99999

etc.

The second (sort -k2,2 -k6,6n foo) brings back:

759153 condo 850 2 1.5 85000
646484 condo 890 3 1 93333
444555 condo 930 2 1 99999
777894 condo 790 3 1 101000
221155 condo 1030 3 1 109500
248624 duplex 1250 3 1 120000
987654 duplex 1100 3 1.5 140000

These are the correct results I'm looking for.

What causes the difference?

Best Answer

As mikeserv said, but with more words:

Using the 'global' -n numeric sort option changes sort's global behavior to use numeric sorting for all the keys (reference) by setting gkey.numeric and then later setting every key's sort option to the globally-set numeric-sort option. This causes the sorting on field 2 to fail, so it falls through to sorting (numerically) on field 6.

Setting the n ordering option inside the -k option only affects sorting on that field, so it can then sort on field 2 until that's not unique, then fall through to numerically sorting on field 6.

Because I could not find 'duplex' lines in your first sort example, I uniquely combined all of the sample lines to create a new sample input file:

153759 townhome 900 2 1 79000
221155 condo 1030 3 1 109500
222999 townhome 850 2 2 83333
248624 duplex 1250 3 1 120000
444555 condo 930 2 1 99999
453215 townhome 1000 3 1.5 86000
646484 condo 890 3 1 93333
759153 condo 850 2 1.5 85000
777894 condo 790 3 1 101000
876543 townhome 745 2 1 79000
987654 duplex 1100 3 1.5 140000

...against which we can demonstrate sort's behavior with the --debug flag; notice the "no match" warnings and the underscores on the 6th field, indicating the portion of the line that sort used for sorting:

$ sort -k2,2 -nk6,6 --debug < input
sort: using ‘en_US.UTF-8’ sorting rules
153759 townhome 900 2 1 79000
       ^ no match for key
                        _____
_____________________________
876543 townhome 745 2 1 79000
       ^ no match for key
                        _____
_____________________________
222999 townhome 850 2 2 83333
       ^ no match for key
                        _____
_____________________________
759153 condo 850 2 1.5 85000
       ^ no match for key
                       _____
____________________________
453215 townhome 1000 3 1.5 86000
       ^ no match for key
                           _____
________________________________
646484 condo 890 3 1 93333
       ^ no match for key
                     _____
__________________________
444555 condo 930 2 1 99999
       ^ no match for key
                     _____
__________________________
777894 condo 790 3 1 101000
       ^ no match for key
                     ______
___________________________
221155 condo 1030 3 1 109500
       ^ no match for key
                      ______
____________________________
248624 duplex 1250 3 1 120000
       ^ no match for key
                       ______
_____________________________
987654 duplex 1100 3 1.5 140000
       ^ no match for key
                         ______
_______________________________

vs:

$ sort -k2,2 -k6,6n --debug < input
sort: using ‘en_US.UTF-8’ sorting rules
sort: leading blanks are significant in key 1; consider also specifying 'b'
759153 condo 850 2 1.5 85000
      ______
                       _____
____________________________
646484 condo 890 3 1 93333
      ______
                     _____
__________________________
444555 condo 930 2 1 99999
      ______
                     _____
__________________________
777894 condo 790 3 1 101000
      ______
                     ______
___________________________
221155 condo 1030 3 1 109500
      ______
                      ______
____________________________
248624 duplex 1250 3 1 120000
      _______
                       ______
_____________________________
987654 duplex 1100 3 1.5 140000
      _______
                         ______
_______________________________
153759 townhome 900 2 1 79000
      _________
                        _____
_____________________________
876543 townhome 745 2 1 79000
      _________
                        _____
_____________________________
222999 townhome 850 2 2 83333
      _________
                        _____
_____________________________
453215 townhome 1000 3 1.5 86000
      _________
                           _____
________________________________
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