DOS Sort

An external command that sorts a text file or Dir list into alphabetical order. Lines in the text files must be uniform and columns (fields) must line up. The following example sorts the text file ABC (starting at column 1), creating ABC2. The < means "input from," and the > means "output to."

              sort < abc > abc2

Assuming that names and addresses exist in a text file called "friends" and that the city begins in character position 60, the following examples create a new file in city sequence. The /+ switch indicates that the city begins in column 60.

  sort /+60 < friends > friends2      a-z order
  sort /+60 /r < friends > friends2   z-a order

To sort the file and print it without saving the results, type:

       sort /+60 < friends > prn

To display a sorted Dir list, type:

                dir | sort

You can sort Dir lists by file characteristics. Use the /+ switch to begin the sort on other than column one of the line:

      dir | sort /+10   by extension
      dir | sort /+14   by file size
      dir | sort /+23   by month
      dir | sort /+29   by year

To write the sorted Dir list to a disk file, type:

     dir | sort > xyz   create new XYZ file
     dir | sort >> xyz  add to existing XYZ file

To append the current sorted directory list to the end of a file called XYZ, type:

              dir | sort >> xyz

Note!
As of DOS 5, additional sorting options for Dir are provided (see DOS Dir).