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From: gbastin@x102c.harris-atd.com (Gary Bastin 60293)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi - alphabetical sort
Keywords: alphabetical sort of a file
Message-ID: <5086@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Date: 13 Dec 90 21:43:01 GMT
References: <1990Dec12.214128.16549@sunee.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@trantor.harris-atd.com
Reply-To: gbastin@x102c.ess.harris.com (Gary Bastin 60293)
Organization: Harris Corporation GSS, Melbourne, Florida
Lines: 30

In article <1990Dec12.214128.16549@sunee.waterloo.edu
neman@sunee.waterloo.edu (Neman "Napalm" Syed) writes:
>Hi!  Another question from another vi-illiterate.  How does one
>perform an alphabetical sort of all items in a file?  The
>specific file I'm thinking of is my very non-alphabetical
>.newsrc, which I'd love to have organized.  Is this possible?

vi .newsrc
:1,$!sort

or

:%!sort

will do it.

If there are a few things that you would like to leave first, put those
items at the top of your .newsrc file, move the cursor to the first line
after the reserved "first" items, and do

<esc> .,$!sort

This sorts all the lines from the current cursor position to the
end of the file.  This way, the newly added newsgroups get put in
alphabetical order AFTER your favorite newsgroups.

Gary Bastin, WB4YAF      /-/-/      Internet: gbastin@x102c.ess.harris.com
Mail Stop 102-4826         |        phone: (407) 729-3045
Harris Corporation GASD    |        
P.O.B. 94000, Melbourne FL 32902    Speaking from, but not for, Harris!