Re: [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names

From	cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross)
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names
Date	2026-04-19 19:32 +0000
Organization	PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID	<10s3akq$ptm$1@reader1.panix.com> (permalink)
References	<10r4h6o$396qn$1@dont-email.me> <10rvlrs$34aqp$1@dont-email.me> <10s20jf$2b5i9$1@dont-email.me> <10s2o7p$25ao7$1@news.xmission.com>

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In article <10s2o7p$25ao7$1@news.xmission.com>,
Kenny McCormack <gazelle@shell.xmission.com> wrote:
>In article <10s20jf$2b5i9$1@dont-email.me>,
>Janis Papanagnou  <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:
>...
>>One terser way (including considering single word entities as the
>>name to get sorted in like a surname) can be
>>
>>   sed 's/, /\n/g' names.txt | awk '{print $NF"\t"$0}' |
>>     sort |
>>       sed 's/.*\t//'
>
>First, on the code of "code golfing" this: Surely, any construct of the
>form:  sed ... | awk ...
>
>can be simplified into a single call to awk, since (with exceptions so few
>as to be irrelevant) anything sed can do, awk can do.

Probably.  But I'm not sure that's all that useful in the
general case.  The `sed` command here is translating logical
records into lines; the `awk` command is then prefixing those
with the last token (and a tab).  Then sorting, so that records
are sorted by the last token, and then removing that token (and
the tab).

>And, of course, whatever the above command line is doing (I haven't
>followed this thread closely enough to know what it is actually about), can
>be done in a single invocation of GAWK (or TAWK), which has built-in
>sorting.  It could also be done in a single invocation of any AWK (or Perl
>or whatever) if you are willing to write your own sort routine.

One could, of course, do this in a single `awk` invocation.  I
suspect it would be rather more awkward.

>And, of course, other posters should be along any minute with Perl (or Ruby
>or Python or ...) one-liners as well.
>
>Second, I would imagine that whoever constructed the original line (to
>which you responded) probably developed it from scratch by stringing things
>together and is quite proud of the effort, so he saw no need to trim it
>down for posting.  Hence the appearance as it is.

*shrug* there's always a possibility to learn.

I saw this and it made me wonder whether one could just use the
`sort` command directly, and tell it to sort using the second
field.  However, some records don't _have_ a second key (they're
single word) and some have 3 (some records have a middle initial
for instance); these are things that the `sort` command just
cannot handle, sadly.

Then it made me think that it would be nice if there was a way
to rotate the fields on a line; sadly, I'm not aware of a
standard command that does that.  But it's not too hard to write
as its own little script.

You then have something like,

`sed 's/, */\n'g' data | rotwords -r | sort | rotwords -l`

`rotwords -r` does a right-rotation (so the last field is moved
to the front) and `rotwords -l` does a left rotation (so the
first field is moved to the rear).

It was kind of a fun exercise.

	- Dan C.

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Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-07 23:14 -0400
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-08 10:22 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-08 12:25 -0400
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-08 18:57 +0100
        Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-08 21:04 +0000
          Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-09 00:10 +0300
            Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-08 23:35 +0000
              Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-09 02:59 +0300
                Re: Small challenge: sort names James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2026-04-09 06:29 -0400
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-09 15:15 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-11 08:49 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-11 19:59 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-16 18:50 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-16 19:54 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-17 16:22 +0200
              Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-08 17:27 -0700
              Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-08 22:14 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-09 02:19 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-09 15:06 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-12 06:35 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-12 14:51 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-13 06:31 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-12 06:48 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-12 16:15 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-25 13:31 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-25 15:12 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-26 04:13 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-25 19:50 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-26 05:28 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-26 12:08 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-26 18:16 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-26 19:37 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-27 02:17 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-27 09:19 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-26 17:47 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-27 02:33 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-27 09:34 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-27 12:35 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-27 13:28 +0100
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-27 17:02 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-27 17:36 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-27 16:18 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-27 11:42 +0300
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-27 16:27 +0000
                Assembler verb choice (Was: Small challenge: sort names) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-28 12:59 +0000
                Re: Assembler verb choice (Was: Small challenge: sort names) Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-28 16:26 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 12:45 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 12:42 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 12:43 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 12:59 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 13:26 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-27 20:43 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 17:30 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-27 19:15 -0700
                Re: Small challenge: sort names gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-28 12:01 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-28 08:35 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-28 13:27 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-28 15:59 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-28 16:49 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-28 17:25 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-28 23:46 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-28 18:12 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-28 20:28 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2026-04-28 13:45 +0000
          Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-11 08:44 +0200
        Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-08 17:13 -0400
          Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-11 08:59 +0200
            Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-11 09:34 +0200
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-11 08:31 +0200
      Re: Small challenge: sort names vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2026-04-28 14:19 +0000
    Re: Small challenge: sort names BGB <cr88192@gmail.com> - 2026-04-12 13:08 -0500
    What is the point of anything? (Was: Small challenge: sort names) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-17 20:44 +0000
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-08 18:46 -0700
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Sort <Sort@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-11 19:15 +0100
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-16 18:24 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-16 18:38 +0100
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-16 19:43 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-18 11:22 +0100
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-18 17:48 +0200
        Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-19 08:44 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-22 05:33 -0400
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-22 03:16 -0700
        Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-22 07:35 -0400
          Re: Small challenge: sort names Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2026-04-23 08:11 -0700
            Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-23 20:14 +0200
              Re: Small challenge: sort names gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-23 18:30 +0000
        Re: Small challenge: sort names gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-23 17:19 +0000
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-22 14:11 +0200
        Re: Small challenge: sort names James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2026-04-22 21:27 -0400
          [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-23 15:51 +0200
            Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-23 14:45 +0000
              Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-23 17:03 +0200
              Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-23 20:31 -0400
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-23 18:43 -0700
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-24 16:58 +0000
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Jan van den Broek <balglaas@dds.nl> - 2026-04-24 06:57 +0000
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-24 10:10 +0200
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-24 12:52 +0200
            Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-23 16:36 -0700
              Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-24 03:01 +0200
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-23 18:50 -0700
                Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-24 20:35 -0700
            Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-24 14:20 +0300
              Re: [OT][meta] Gender (was Re: Small challenge: sort names) Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-24 14:32 +0200
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-23 20:10 +0200
        Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-25 10:26 -0400
          Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-26 13:01 +0200
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-18 11:16 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-18 08:11 -0400
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-18 14:03 +0100
    Re: Small challenge: sort names Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-20 21:20 +0200
      Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-20 16:43 -0400
        Re: Small challenge: sort names Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-21 05:09 +0200
          Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-21 08:46 -0400
            Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-21 16:08 +0100
              Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-21 11:33 -0400
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-21 18:25 +0100
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-21 17:38 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-21 20:50 +0300
                Re: Small challenge: sort names scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-04-21 18:22 +0000
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-22 03:48 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-22 09:18 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-22 13:22 +0300
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-22 12:38 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2026-04-22 13:58 +0300
                Re: Small challenge: sort names David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2026-04-22 13:13 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-22 14:53 +0200
                Re: Small challenge: sort names DFS <nospam@dfs.com> - 2026-04-21 16:31 -0400
                Re: Small challenge: sort names Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-04-21 23:04 +0100
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2026-04-20 14:16 -0700
        An audience of one (Was: Small challenge: sort names) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-21 13:00 +0000
          Re: An audience of one (Was: Small challenge: sort names) "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-04-21 12:21 -0700
    Re: Small challenge: sort names Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-21 05:00 +0200
      Re: Small challenge: sort names Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-21 05:06 +0200
  Re: Small challenge: sort names gggggggggggunit <gunitinug@50cent.com> - 2026-04-18 10:19 +0000
    [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-19 09:35 +0200
      Re: [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-19 14:18 +0000
        Re: [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-04-19 19:32 +0000
          Re: [OT] Shell approach to Re: Small challenge: sort names Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2026-04-22 03:34 +0200
  Re: Small challenge: sort names Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-04-28 06:53 +0200
    Re: Small challenge: sort names gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2026-04-28 13:01 +0000

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