GNU bug report logs - #11900
Sort by month fails if not in first field or first position

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: jim <at> smartots.com
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Sort by month fails if not in first field or first position
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:42:02 +0800 (HKT)

If I put a month in any column other than the first, at any position than the first, sort fails-

> echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort -k2.2,2.5M
1 qFeb
1 qJan

The following all *DO* work, however:


#First column, not first position
> echo -e "qFeb\nqJan" | sort -k1.2,1.5M
qJan
qFeb

#Second column, first position
> echo -e "1 Feb\n1 Jan" | sort -k2.1,2.4M
1 Jan
1 Feb

#Second column, full key
> echo -e "1 Feb\n1 Jan" | sort -k2M
1 Jan
1 Feb

Message #8 received at 11900 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: jim <at> smartots.com
Cc: 11900 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#11900: Sort by month fails if not in first field or first
	position
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:11:16 +0100

tag 11900 + notabug
close 11900
stop

On 07/10/2012 08:42 AM, jim <at> smartots.com wrote:
> echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort -k2.2,2.5M

Yep that's a tricky one, but specified by POSIX.
--debug is very useful here...

$ echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort --debug -k2.2,2.5M
sort: using ‘en_US.utf8’ sorting rules
sort: leading blanks are significant in key 1; consider also specifying 'b'
1 qFeb
  ^ no match for key
______
1 qJan
  ^ no match for key
______


Now you might think you can just specify -b, but...

$ echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort --debug -b -k2.2,2.5M
sort: using ‘en_US.utf8’ sorting rules
sort: leading blanks are significant in key 1; consider also specifying 'b'
sort: option '-b' is ignored
1 qFeb
  ^ no match for key
______
1 qJan
  ^ no match for key
______


So you might then think you could add 'b' to the full key, but...

$ echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort --debug -b -k2.2,2.5Mb
sort: using ‘en_US.utf8’ sorting rules
sort: leading blanks are significant in key 1; consider also specifying 'b'
1 qFeb
  ^ no match for key
______
1 qJan
  ^ no match for key
______


So what you really need to do is:

$ echo -e "1 qFeb\n1 qJan" | sort --debug -k2.2b,2.5Mb
sort: using ‘en_US.utf8’ sorting rules
1 qJan
   ___
______
1 qFeb
   ___
______

cheers,
Pádraig.

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