Linux shell sort file according to second column?

Question

I have a file like this:

FirstName, FamilyName, Address, PhoneNumber 

How can I sort it by last name?

Answer 1

If it is UNIX:

 sort -k 2 file.txt 

You can use multiple -k flags to sort more than one column. For example, to sort by last name, and then first as a constraint constraint:

 sort -k 2,2 -k 1,1 file.txt 

Relevant options from "man sort":

-k, --key = POS1 [, POS2]

run the key in POS1, put it on POS2 (start 1)

POS - F [.C] [OPTS], where F is the field number and C is the character position in the field. OPTS is one or more one-letter order options that override the global order parameters for this key. If no key is specified, use the entire string as the key.

-t, --field-separator = SEP

use SEP instead of a non-empty null transition

Answer 2

To sort only by the second field (if the second fields coincide, these lines coincide in the order in which they are in the original without sorting by other fields):

 sort -k 2,2 -s orig_file > sorted_file 

Answer 3

sort -nk2 file.txt

Accordingly, you can change the column number.

Answer 4

FWIW, here is a sorting method showing which processes use the most virtual memory.

 memstat | sort -k 1 -t':' -g -r | less 

Sorting options are set to the first column, using: as a column separator, numerical sorting and sorting in reverse order.