Vim Recipes ‣ Editing ‣ Sorting Text

Sorting Text

Problem

You want to sort a selection of text or an entire whole file.

For example, if you've made a list of your books with one title per line, you'd like to organise it alphabetically.

Solution

Vim version 7 introduced a :sort command. So if you're using v7 or later you can sort an entire file using :sort.

You can find your Vim version number with the :version command. The first line of output contains the version number, e.g. VIM - Vi IMproved 7.2 (2008 Aug 9, compiled Mar 19 2009 15:27:51), which indicates version 7.2.

If you're using an older version of Vim you'll need an external sort utility. Linux/UNIX users should already have sort installed. You can sort the entire file by executing :!%sort, which filters the file through the external sort utility.

To sort part of a file:

1. Select the area you're interested in.
2. Hit : and Vim will display :'<,'>' which refers to your selection.
3. Type !sort (i.e. execute :'<,'>!sort).

Discussion

Both methods above sort lines alphabetically. If you require a different type of sorting you need to pass options to the command.

If you're using Vim 7+:

:sort!

Reverses the sort order, i.e. sorts in descending order: z-a, 100-0.

:sort flags

The sort command can be followed by a series of flags which can be combined in any order:

n

Sorts by the first decimal number in the line.

i

Ignores case while sorting.

u

Deletes duplicate lines (keeps unique lines).

:sort /pattern/

Ignore text matching pattern when sorting.

For example, the following table describes how the set of data in the Original column is transformed for the given invocations of :sort.

If you're using the external sort utility the options are similar. See man sort for the details. Common invocations are:

%!sort -u

Delete duplicate lines.

%!sort -f

Ignore case when sorting.

%!sort -r

Reverse sort order.