off topic: sort problem

[Amadeus WM]

I've been using sort for years and I just ran into something I've never 
seen and I can't explain.

cat spam 
AA|3334
A|3826

cat spam | sort -k1 -t"|"              # this works!
A|3826
AA|3334


Now 

cat junk
AA|def
A|xyz

cat junk | sort -k1 -t"|"              # this doesn't
AA|def
A|xyz

The two files spam and junk have the exact same first column, but one 
gets sorted, the other doesn't. What am I missing?

Thanks!

[Cameron Simpson]

On 21Nov2018 21:47, Amadeus W.M. <amadeus84(a)verizon.net&gt; wrote:
> I've been using sort for years and I just ran into something
> I've never
> seen and I can't explain. 
[...]

I see some weirdness too, but mine doesn't match yours. (Ubuntu 16.04 
here, though.)

I note that sort(1) says:

       ***  WARNING  ***  The locale specified by the environment affects
       sort order.  Set LC_ALL=C to get the traditional sort order that uses
       native byte values.

So do some testing with:

  cat spam | LC_ALL=C sort -k1 -t"|"

and report.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs(a)cskk.id.au&gt;

[Amadeus WM]

After reading the  man more carefully, an end position should be 
specified for the key:

"KEYDEF  is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position, where
F is a field number and C a character position in the field;  both  are
origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end."

Hence

cat junk
AA|def
A|xyz

cat junk | sort -k1,1 -t"|"         # 1=start position, 1=end position
A|xyz
AA|def

It's all good now.


On Wed, 21 Nov 2018 21:47:24 +0000, Amadeus WM wrote:

>  I've been using sort for years and I just ran into something
> I've never
>  seen and I can't explain.
>  
>  cat spam AA|3334 A|3826
>  
>  cat spam | sort -k1 -t"|"              # this works!
>  A|3826 AA|3334
>  
>  
>  Now
>  
>  cat junk AA|def A|xyz
>  
>  cat junk | sort -k1 -t"|"              # this doesn't AA|def A|xyz
>  
>  The two files spam and junk have the exact same first column, but one
>  gets sorted, the other doesn't. What am I missing?
>  
>  Thanks!
>  
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[Cameron Simpson]

On 21Nov2018 22:12, Amadeus W.M. <amadeus84(a)verizon.net&gt; wrote:
> After reading the  man more carefully, an end position should be
> specified for the key:
>
> "KEYDEF  is F[.C][OPTS][,F[.C][OPTS]] for start and stop position, where
> F is a field number and C a character position in the field;  both  are
> origin 1, and the stop position defaults to the line's end."
>
> Hence
>
> cat junk
> AA|def
> A|xyz
>
> cat junk | sort -k1,1 -t"|"         # 1=start position, 1=end position
> A|xyz
> AA|def
>
> It's all good now. 
Ahaha. Thank you! - Cameron