Re: M-x sort-fields

[Barry Margolin <barmar@genuity.net>]

In article <mailman.1037917702.29749.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 <Raimund.Kohl@freenet.de> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I do have files with coloumns of either text or digits and want to sort
>them by date. How do I do that? If I use M-x sort-field it doesn't accept
>a numeric argument ... at least not the way I try to put it in. Here an
>example:
>
>blahblah  &  12.2.  & 132,40  &  10,20
>blubblub  &  15.5.  &  15,40  &   2,23
>bleblebb  &  1.4.   &  10,00  &   1,00
>
>I want to sort the lines according the date of the third column (given the
>"&" sign is a column of it's own). If I understood the manual correctly I
>am to mark the "b" of the first line and the "0" of the last line and then
>command M-x sort-fields with the column as a numeric argument to which it
>all lines shall become sorted. Anybody to help me here?

M-3 M-x sort-fields

is the way to specify that it should sort on column 3.  When I do that, I
get:

>bleblebb  &  1.4.   &  10,00  &   1,00
>blahblah  &  12.2.  & 132,40  &  10,20
>blubblub  &  15.5.  &  15,40  &   2,23

Note that the sort is lexicographic, not numeric, so 8.4 will go *after*
12.2.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
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