til/unix/sort-in-numerical-order.md

Sort In Numerical Order

By default, the sort command will sort things alphabetically. If you have numerical input though, you may want a numerical sort. This is what the -n flag is for.

If I have a directory of files with numbered names, sort doesn't quite do the job by itself.

$ ls | sort
1.txt
10.txt
11.txt
12.txt
2.txt
3.txt
4.txt
5.txt

with the -n flag, I get the sort order I am looking for.

$ ls | sort -n
1.txt
2.txt
3.txt
4.txt
5.txt
10.txt
11.txt
12.txt