Sorting plaintext by line-ending content

Question

I have a plaintext list organized in the following format:

[file pathname] [track name] [artist name] [numerical value]

e.g.:

C:\Users\Somi\Music\Shaheedi.mp3    Shaheedi [By.NagRa] [Rp] Pasla Jatha Birmingham 140.01
C:\Users\Somi\Music\08 - Idgaf.mp3  Idgaf   Bohemia (www.nannu.info)    88.01   
C:\Users\Somi\Music\08 - Klasikhz - Hangower.mp3    Hangower    Klasikhz    101.06  
C:\Users\Somi\Music\4. Manni Sandhu  -  Pegg 2012[CrazyMasti.Com].mp3   4.  Manni Sandhu  -  Pegg 2012[CrazyMasti.Com]  Manni Sandhu[CrazyMasti.Com]    103.01  
C:\Users\Somi\Music\5. Manni Sandhu  -  Jaan Sadi[CrazyMasti.Com].mp3   5. Manni Sandhu  -  Jaan Sadi[CrazyMasti.Com]   Manni Sandhu[CrazyMasti.Com]    94.01   
C:\Users\Somi\Music\6. Manni Sandhu  -  Gidhian Di Rani[CrazyMasti.Com].mp3 6. Manni Sandhu  -  Gidhian Di Rani[CrazyMasti.Com] Manni Sandhu[CrazyMasti.Com]    95.00   
C:\Users\Somi\Music\7. Manni Sandhu  -  Door Ni Kulne[CrazyMasti.Com].mp3   7. Manni Sandhu  -  Door Ni Kulne[CrazyMasti.Com]   Manni Sandhu[CrazyMasti.Com]    94.00   
C:\Users\Somi\Music\8. Manni Sandhu  -  Bottle[CrazyMasti.Com].mp3  8. Manni Sandhu  -  Bottle[CrazyMasti.Com]  Manni Sandhu[CrazyMasti.Com]    123.99  

Each entry in the list is separated from the succeeding one by a hard return. It also seems as though the terminal numerical value is separated from the rest of the line by a tab. Is there some way to sort these entries by that terminal numerical value? That is, is there some way I can get them all arranged such that the terminal numerical values are either ascending or descending?

I am running OS X Lion, but if needed, I can just transfer the text file to a Windows machine.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

If your input fields are not separated unambiguously, e.g. because titles contain spaces as well, you cannot assume a specific column index for your numerical value. Therefore, you need a tool that is able to extract the last column, regardless of its index. awk can do that:

awk '{ printf $NF; $NF=""; print "", $0 }' input.txt | sort -rn

Explanation:

• printf $NF prints the last field. printf is needed because a regular print prints a newline as well.
• $NF is cleared, so we basically remove the last column.
• print "", $0 prints the whole line prefixed with one single space.
• It is then sorted numerically (-n) and reversed (-r).

This solution works with both the BSD commands native to OS X as well as the GNU tools that come with Linux.

---

In your particular case, the file isn't well formatted. You have a Tab character before each newline, so this gets incorrectly parsed as the last field. For your file, the awk command would look as follows. Here, NF-1 refers to the second to last field.

awk '{ printf $(NF-1); $(NF-1)=""; print "", $0 }' test_sort_list.txt | sort -rn

Example:

% head -n 5 test_sort_list.txt
C:\Users\Somi\Music\(DJNagRa) Nachna Pawu - TeamPBN By NagRa.mp3    Nachna Pawu(DJNagRa)    TeamPBN(DJNagRa)    96.00
C:\Users\Somi\Music\(DJNagRa) Ni Goriyeh ft Billa Bakshi DJ Rags By NagRa.mp3   Ni Goriyeh (feat. Billa Bakshi)(DJNagRa)    DJ Rags(DJNagRa)    132.28
C:\Users\Somi\Music\(UMP) 08 Jassi J & Bhinda Jatt - Khushiya.mp3   Khushiya    (UMP) Jassi J & Bhinda Jatt 100.00
C:\Users\Somi\Music\(UMP) 09 Jassi J, Manjit Pappu & Cheshire Cat - Sadde Ton Piyara (Remix).mp3    Sadde Ton Piyara (Remix)    (UMP) Jassi J, Manjit Pappu & Cheshire Cat  85.99
C:\Users\Somi\Music\-  Baagi Ja Badshah - Bol Dehliye [www.Bhangracrew.com].mp3 Baagi Ja Badshah - Bol Dehliye  [BC] Santnam Singh Arshi Jatha  40.00

% awk '{ printf $(NF-1); $(NF-1)=""; print "", $0 }' test_sort_list.txt | sort -rn | head -n 5
250.00 C:\Users\Somi\Music\bilzkashif-bb06(www.songs.pk).mp3 Dil Nahin Lagda The Bilz and Kashif
250.00 C:\Users\Somi\Music\[WwD] Panjabi MC - Bari Barsi (12 Months) [iTunes-Rip].mp3 Bari Barsi (12 Months) Panjabi MC [www.worldwidedesis.com]
164.28 C:\Users\Somi\Music\Darh Tere Teh-VipJaTT.CoM.mp3 Darh Tere Teh-VipJaTT.CoM
164.07 C:\Users\Somi\Music\Jado Kade Tohar Shohar-VipJaTT.CoM.mp3 Jado Kade Tohar Shohar [VipJaTT.CoM] Gippy Grewal [VipJaTT.CoM]
164.04 C:\Users\Somi\Music\Dil Nachda.mp3 Dil Nachda Diljit VipJaTT.CoM

Answer 2

Convert the file to UTF-8 and LF first:

$ file test_sort_list.txt
test_sort_list.txt: ISO-8859 English text, with very long lines, with CRLF line terminators
$ iconv -f iso-8859-1 -t utf-8 test_sort_list.txt | tr -d '\r' > test_sort_list2.txt
$ file test_sort_list2.txt
test_sort_list2.txt: UTF-8 Unicode English text, with very long lines

Then use sort -nk4:

sort -t$'\t' -rnk4 test_sort_list2.txt

Answer 3

With just one line of input it's hard to tell exactly what you need. If your whole file is in the same format, then:

sort -k 10 input

Would be enough for your sample input. If you have variable length rows, you'll have to add an extra step to find the last column. This answer on SO is then probably something you're looking for.