# TSORT v1.40 - field oriented sorting

#### Revised 18-Mar-97. Copyright (c) 1996-97 by Rune Berg. TextTools Freeware.

Usage - Description - Example - Options - Limitations

### USAGE

tsort [log logfile] [options] [from infile] [to outfile] expr [...]

### DESCRIPTION

tsort sorts infile on the results of the given expression(s), and writes the sorted data to outfile. Expressions are as for tcols.

infile must be an ASCII text file. tsort sees each input line as a row of (by default) whitespace-separated fields; see tcols for more info.

tsort ignores empty (whitespace only) input lines.

tsort compares data the same way as trows does.

tsort retains the relative order of lines for which the expressions evaluate the same.

The output lines are identical to the input lines. tsort only changes their order.

If you don't specify infile, tsort reads from standard input.
If you don't specify outfile, tsort writes to standard output.
If you don't specify logfile, tsort writes error messages to standard error.

### EXAMPLE

Consider the file "records.txt":

            Band             "The Band"            1969
            "Violent Femmes" "Violent Femmes"      1983
            Beatles          Revolver              1966
            Beatles          "Rubber Soul"         1965
            "Waits, Tom"     Swordfishtrombones    1983
            Band             "Music From Big Pink" 1968

The command:

            tsort from records.txt $1.duqt $3

    sorts the records on band/artist name (stripped of surrounding double quotes) and further on year of release, printing:

            Band             "Music From Big Pink" 1968
            Band             "The Band"            1969
            Beatles          "Rubber Soul"         1965
            Beatles          Revolver              1966
            "Violent Femmes" "Violent Femmes"      1983
            "Waits, Tom"     Swordfishtrombones    1983

### OPTIONS

-iC : Separate fields in infile by character C (except \). Use \t to form a tab.

-d : Sort on descending values.

-v : Print version banner and usage info to standard error (or logfile, if given), then exit.

-he : Print summary of expressions usage to standard output, then exit.

-hf : Print summary of all functions to standard output, then exit.

-hf name : Print summary of named function to standard output, then exit.

### LIMITATIONS

tsort has the same limitations as tcols.

tsort runs out of memory when infile, or the expressions evaluated thereof, are too large.

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