Want to sort file contents by each line’s lenght? No problems:
artemn@artemn-laptop:~$ cat /etc/passwd | awk '{print length, $0}' | sort -n | awk '{$1=""; print $0 }'
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/bin/sh mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync ntp:x:110:120::/home/ntp:/bin/false daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh ftp:x:111:65534::/home/ftp:/bin/false games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh klog:x:102:103::/home/klog:/bin/false man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh dhcp:x:100:101::/nonexistent:/bin/false news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh saned:x:120:131::/home/saned:/bin/false syslog:x:101:102::/home/syslog:/bin/false uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh libuuid:x:112:121::/var/lib/libuuid:/bin/sh messagebus:x:103:109::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh sshd:x:109:65534::/var/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin Debian-exim:x:117:128::/var/spool/exim4:/bin/false artemn:x:1000:1000:artemn,,,:/home/artemn:/bin/bash list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh mysql:x:119:130:MySQL Server,,,:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/false gdm:x:108:118:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm:/bin/false hplip:x:104:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false pulse:x:113:123:PulseAudio daemon,,,:/var/run/pulse:/bin/false polkituser:x:114:127:PolicyKit,,,:/var/run/PolicyKit:/bin/false avahi:x:106:114:Avahi mDNS daemon,,,:/var/run/avahi-daemon:/bin/false asterisk:x:118:129:Asterisk PBX daemon,,,:/var/lib/asterisk:/bin/false gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh haldaemon:x:107:116:Hardware abstraction layer,,,:/home/haldaemon:/bin/false landscape:x:115:65534:Landscape Client Daemon,,,:/var/lib/landscape:/bin/false avahi-autoipd:x:105:113:Avahi autoip daemon,,,:/var/lib/avahi-autoipd:/bin/false chipcard:x:116:119:Chipcard-Tools Daemon Account,,,:/var/run/chipcard:/bin/false
For reverse sort, use the following command:
cat /etc/passwd | awk '{print length, $0}' | sort -rn | awk '{$1=""; print $0 }'
Source: www.opennet.ru
Nice. Just few tips in addition.
The last “awk ‘{$1=”"; print $0 }’” may be replaced with lighter “cut -d ‘ ‘ -f 2-”.
And a dumb Perl one-liner:
$ perl -e ‘print sort { length $a length $b } ‘ </etc/passwd
Great tips both.
lol “Want some… no problem” I like that.
Awesome, thanks for the info.
Interesting, thanks for the post.
Very good
Very interesting, thanks for the information.
You don’t need the cat invocation. Awk can take the file as the standard input.
So, the following works just as well:
awk ‘{print length, $0}’ /etc/passwd | sort -n | awk ‘{$1=”"; print $0 }’
You can put the length of the line into an associative array and sort it all from within awk. Interesting associative array play:
awk ‘{ arr[length $0] = $0 } END { for (len in arr) \
printf(“%d\t%s\n”, len, arr[len]) | “sort -n” }’ /etc/passwd | cut -f2-
In script form it’s a bit clearer:
#!/bin/bash
# awksort: sort the input by size
awk ‘{
arr[length $0] = $0
}
END {
for (len in arr)
printf(“%d\t%s\n”, len, arr[len]) | “sort -n”
}’ $* |
cut -f2-
Invoked with:
# awksort /etc/passwd
Well, it was clearer ’till the tabs all went away.
;>)
ruby hackers way
ruby -e “puts File.open(‘/etc/passwd’).sort { |a,b| a.length b.length }”
Oh, don’t worry about the tabs going away. We figured it out just as well. It works indeed like that so thanks for sharing!
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