How to use awk sort by column 3 - awk

Question

I have a file (user.csv)like this
ip,hostname,user,group,encryption,aduser,adattr
want to print all column sort by user,
I tried awk -F ":" '{print|"$3 sort -n"}' user.csv , it doesn't work.

Answer 1

How about just sort.
sort -t, -nk3 user.csv
where
-t, - defines your delimiter as ,.
-n - gives you numerical sort. Added since you added it in your
attempt. If your user field is text only then you dont need it.
-k3 - defines the field (key). user is the third field.

Answer 2

Use awk to put the user ID in front.
Sort
Use sed to remove the duplicate user ID, assuming user IDs do not contain any spaces.
awk -F, '{ print $3, $0 }' user.csv | sort | sed 's/^.* //'

Answer 3

Seeing as that the original question was on how to use awk and every single one of the first 7 answers use sort instead, and that this is the top hit on Google, here is how to use awk.
Sample net.csv file with headers:
ip,hostname,user,group,encryption,aduser,adattr
192.168.0.1,gw,router,router,-,-,-
192.168.0.2,server,admin,admin,-,-,-
192.168.0.3,ws-03,user,user,-,-,-
192.168.0.4,ws-04,user,user,-,-,-
And sort.awk:
#!/usr/bin/awk -f
# usage: ./sort.awk -v f=FIELD FILE
BEGIN {
FS=","
}
# each line
{
a[NR]=$0 ""
s[NR]=$f ""
}
END {
isort(s,a,NR);
for(i=1; i<=NR; i++) print a[i]
}
#insertion sort of A[1..n]
function isort(S, A, n, i, j) {
for( i=2; i<=n; i++) {
hs = S[j=i]
ha = A[j=i]
while (S[j-1] > hs) {
j--;
S[j+1] = S[j]
A[j+1] = A[j]
}
S[j] = hs
A[j] = ha
}
}
To use it:
awk sort.awk f=3 < net.csv # OR
chmod +x sort.awk
./sort.awk f=3 net.csv

Answer 4

You can choose a delimiter, in this case I chose a colon and printed the column number one, sorting by alphabetical order:
awk -F\: '{print $1|"sort -u"}' /etc/passwd

Answer 5

awk -F, '{ print $3, $0 }' user.csv | sort -nk2
and for reverse order
awk -F, '{ print $3, $0 }' user.csv | sort -nrk2

Answer 6

try this -
awk '{print $0|"sort -t',' -nk3 "}' user.csv
OR
sort -t',' -nk3 user.csv

Answer 7

awk -F "," '{print $0}' user.csv | sort -nk3 -t ','
This should work

Answer 8

To exclude the first line (header) from sorting, I split it out into two buffers.
df | awk 'BEGIN{header=""; $body=""} { if(NR==1){header=$0}else{body=body"\n"$0}} END{print header; print body|"sort -nk3"}'

Answer 9

With GNU awk:
awk -F ',' '{ a[$3]=$0 } END{ PROCINFO["sorted_in"]="#ind_str_asc"; for(i in a) print a[i] }' file
See 8.1.6 Using Predefined Array Scanning Orders with gawk for more sorting algorithms.

Answer 10

I'm running Linux (Ubuntu) with mawk:
tmp$ awk -W version
mawk 1.3.4 20200120
Copyright 2008-2019,2020, Thomas E. Dickey
Copyright 1991-1996,2014, Michael D. Brennan
random-funcs: srandom/random
regex-funcs: internal
compiled limits:
sprintf buffer 8192
maximum-integer 2147483647
mawk (and gawk) has an option to redirect the output of print to a command. From man awk chapter 9. Input and output:
The output of print and printf can be redirected to a file or command by appending > file, >> file or | command to the end of the print statement. Redirection opens file or command only once, subsequent redirections append to the already open stream.
Below you'll find a simplied example how | can be used to pass the wanted records to an external program that makes the hard work. This also nicely encapsulates everything in a single awk file and reduces the command line clutter:
tmp$ cat input.csv
alpha,num
D,4
B,2
A,1
E,5
F,10
C,3
tmp$ cat sort.awk
# print header line
/^alpha,num/ {
print
}
# all other lines are data lines that should be sorted
!/^alpha,num/ {
print | "sort --field-separator=, --key=2 --numeric-sort"
}
tmp$ awk -f sort.awk input.csv
alpha,num
A,1
B,2
C,3
D,4
E,5
F,10
See man sort for the details of the sort options:
-t, --field-separator=SEP
use SEP instead of non-blank to blank transition
-k, --key=KEYDEF
sort via a key; KEYDEF gives location and type
-n, --numeric-sort
compare according to string numerical value