sorttable - sort a starbase data table on specified columns.

SYNOPSYS

        sorttable [options] < table [keycolumn[:flags]] [keycolumn[:flags]] ...

sorttable uses the unix sort program to sort a starbase data table.

A pair of lines is compared as follows: if any key fields have been specified, sort compares each pair of fields, in the order specified on the command line, according to the associated ordering options, until a difference is found or no fields are left.

If any of the program options Mbdfhinr are given but no key fields are specified, sort compares the entire lines according to the global options.

OPTIONS

• -i ~file use file as input instead of the standard input.
• -o ~file use file as output instead of the standard output.
• -c Check whether the given files are already sorted: if they are not all sorted, print an error message and exit with a status of 1.
• -u For the default case or the -m option, only output the first of a sequence of lines that compare equal. For the -c option, check that no pair of consecutive lines compares equal.
• -A Print all lines of those that have duplicates.
• -D Print only the first line of lines that have duplicates.
• -U Print only lines which have no duplicates.
• -m merge sorted files.
• -C Print the number of lines that compare equil in a new column named "Count".
• -M <m> multiple all internal buffers by <m>.
• -Z <z> zip temporaty file at zip factor <z>.
• -T <dir> use temp dir <dir>.
• -X print out the intended arvg just before calling sort.

• -a Compare using the ASCII collating sequence.
• -b skip initial blank space (note that trailing whitespace is always skipped in sorttable).
• -d Sort in `phone directory' order: ignore all characters except letters, digits and blanks when sorting.
• -F Fold lower case characters into the equivalent upper case characters when sorting so that, for example, `b' is sorted the same way `B' is.
• -I Ignore characters outside the ASCII range 040-0176 octal (inclusive) when sorting.
• -M An initial string, consisting of any amount of white space, followed by three letters abbreviating a month name, is folded to UPPER case and compared in the order `JAN' < `FEB' < ... < `DEC.' Invalid names compare low to valid names.
• -n Compare according to arithmetic value. an initial numeric string consisting of optional white space, an optional - sign, and zero or more digits, optionally followed by a decimal point and zero or more digits.
• -h Like -n except sexagesimal values are allowed (HH:MM:SSS.SS etc).
• -q Column values are comapred as dates in any valid date format (see mjd().)
• -r Reverse the result of comparison, so that lines with greater key values appear earlier in the output instead of later.
• -z<n> Zone sort of numeric column divided by <n>.

Any of the above sort options may be supplied for specific columns by suffixing the column with a sort flag. Sort flags are introduced by the colon character (":"). Several flags may be given. The flags affect only that column.

In addition a specific subset of characters in a key column may be selected with the column range modifier.

To sort file on column XXX characters 3 through 5 inclusive.

        sorttable XXX+3-5 file

Sort a table by Object name

        john@panic: sorttable < catalog.tab Object > sorted.tab

Sort a table by RA and Dec

        john@panic: sorttable -h < catalog.tab RA Dec > sorted.tab

Sort a table by Object name and then RA position

        john@panic: sorttable < catalog.tab Object -h RA > sorted.tab

• jointable - join two starbase data tables on matching key columns.

• starbase.1 starbase data table introduction.
• starbase.3 starbase data table C library.
• starbase.5 starbase data table file format.