Hi all,

What is the unix sort command to sort 3 files x1.txt,x2.txt,x3.txt at the same time

where i have to do sorting on the 4 keys(columns) on the 3 files and these four columns are same on the 3 files


can any one help me how to do ?

Thanks
Jason.

do you want to create ONE sorted fiile out of 3 input files?

what is your record/column separator?
what columns do you need to sort on?

man sort

hi

i need to sort 3 files and put the result in the same 3 input files (overwrite)
three input files are comma delimited , i have tried on single key files but never on 4 key fields and on 3 files at a time....


thanks
jason

I don't think you can do what you want without writting a script wrapper.
work out the details in the 'stand-alone' mode and write your script afterwards.

Here's how to sort on 2 fields: second and fifth:

sort -t ',' -k 2,2 -k 5,5 file

Thanks vgresh,

I will try... what you said,... but i guess there is sort -o option to overwrite the same file...


Thanks
Jason

right, but I don't think you can do it for multiple files. I might be mistaken - you'll have to try it out in the 'sand-box' to see how far you can get.

If you cannot do it for multiple files on the same command line, you'l' have to script it with some kind of a 'loop' - one file at the time.