How to sort on right most column

[Robert Felps]

In <13320 at exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> rock at warp.Eng.Sun.COM (Bill Petro) writes:


>How could I do this using either the sort command, or perl or awk?

>I have the following data in this format - I want to sort it on the
>right most column.  The columns are not tab delimited, and some of the
>columns have arbitrary numbers of words (specifically the third column
>from the left, column c).  Sort assumes that you start numbering on the
>left, and count from 0.  How would you start with the right most
>column, column e?

>  0    1   2                              3                     4

>  a    b   c                              c                     e

> FOO  BAR ACE CORPORATION                SUNNYVALE              2.00
> FOO  BAR ACER COMPUTED COMPANY          MILPITAS              20.00
> FOO  BAR APOLLO COMPUTER, INC.          CHELMSFORD             1.00
> FOO  BAR APPLE COMPUTER, INC.           CUPERTINO              8.00
> FOO  BAR BOEING                         TUKWILA               53.00
> FOO  BAR BOEING COMPUTER SERVICES       EDDYSTONE              2.00
> FOO  BAR CITIBANK N. A.                 ANDOVER                4.00
> FOO  BAR CITIBANK NORTH AMERICA         LONG ISLAND CITY      26.00


I don't know of any way to sort based on right to left. But you might try

    $ sort +0.60bn -0.70bn data

Which sorts columns 60 thru 70 ignoring blanks and using numeric values to
sort on.

>Thanks!


>--
>     Bill Petro  {decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!Eng!rock
>"UNIX for the sake of the kingdom of heaven"  Matthew 19:12

Hope it helps,
Robert Felps            I do not speak for  felps at convex.com
Convex Computer Corp    Convex and I seldom Product Specialist
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