unix sort descending order

Question

I want to sort a tab limited file in descending order according to the 5th field of the records   I tried   sort -r -k5n filename   But it didn t work

User · Answer

To list files based on size in asending order   find    -size  1000M -exec ls -tlrh        awk -F      print  5  9      sort -n

User · Answer

The presence of the n option attached to the -k5 causes the global -r option to be ignored for that field  You have to specify both n and r at the same level  globally or locally    sort -t    t  -k5 5rn   or  sort -rn -t    t  -k5 5

User · Answer

If you only want to sort only on the 5th field then use -k5 5    Also  use the  -t command line switch to specify the delimiter to tab  Try this   sort  -k5 5 -r -n -t  t filename   or if the above doesn t work  with the tab  this   sort  -k5 5 -r -n -t    t  filename   The man page for sort states      -t  --field-separator SEP           use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition   Finally  this SO question Unix Sort with Tab Delimiter might be helpful

[unix] unix sort descending order

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