On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:38:46 Nicholas Robinson wrote:
> On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:18:11 Amadeus W.M. wrote:
> > You would think specifying tab as a field separator for sort would work
> > like this:
> >
> > cat file | sort -k 3 -t " "
> >
> > It doesn't:
> >
> > sort: multi-character tab ` '
> >
> >
> > So after a little search and some trial and error I got this to work:
> >
> > cat file | sort -k 3 -t "`/bin/echo -e ' '`"
> >
> >
> > For my own curiosity, can someone please illuminate me as to why the
> > first incantation does not work as expected? Is there a more natural way
> > to specify other than echo?
>
> Take the double quotes out in your first attempt. So command becomes
>
> cat file | sort -k 3 -t
>
> Nick

Sorry, I was a little bit quick off the mark. The doesn't yield a tab
character (see below) as you were implying and I went along with in the first
example! If you take the double quotes out as I suggested, then the field
separator becomes the character t!

I think (being a little more cautious this time!) that you want:

followed by Ctrl V followed by Ctrl I

If I remember correctly, sort interprets a tab as a default field separator
anyway.

As to the why: it is because the -t takes an argument which is a character.
Putting double quotes around it stops the being elided and so as two
characters and t are presented to sort which is expecting only one
character. Hence its moan. Try echo " " and you will see what I mean.

In my second attempt above, the Ctrl V stops the tab character (Ctrl I) being
expanded on the command line and the joins the tab character to the t.

HTH

Nick

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On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:06:54 +0000, Nicholas Robinson wrote:

> On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:38:46 Nicholas Robinson wrote:
>> On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:18:11 Amadeus W.M. wrote:
>> > You would think specifying tab as a field separator for sort would
>> > work like this:
>> >
>> > cat file | sort -k 3 -t " "
>> >
>> > It doesn't:
>> >
>> > sort: multi-character tab ` '
>> >
>> >
>> > So after a little search and some trial and error I got this to work:
>> >
>> > cat file | sort -k 3 -t "`/bin/echo -e ' '`"
>> >
>> >
>> > For my own curiosity, can someone please illuminate me as to why the
>> > first incantation does not work as expected? Is there a more natural
>> > way to specify other than echo?
>>
>> Take the double quotes out in your first attempt. So command becomes
>>
>> cat file | sort -k 3 -t
>>
>> Nick
>
> Sorry, I was a little bit quick off the mark. The doesn't yield a tab
> character (see below) as you were implying and I went along with in the
> first example! If you take the double quotes out as I suggested, then
> the field separator becomes the character t!
>
> I think (being a little more cautious this time!) that you want:
>
> followed by Ctrl V followed by Ctrl I
>
> If I remember correctly, sort interprets a tab as a default field
> separator anyway.
>
> As to the why: it is because the -t takes an argument which is a
> character. Putting double quotes around it stops the being elided and
> so as two characters and t are presented to sort which is expecting
> only one character. Hence its moan. Try echo " " and you will see what
> I mean.
>
> In my second attempt above, the Ctrl V stops the tab character (Ctrl I)
> being expanded on the command line and the joins the tab character to
> the t.
>
> HTH
>
> Nick

Thank you!
How do I know Ctrl-V + Ctrl-I is ?


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On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 23:49 +0000, Amadeus W.M. wrote:
> How do I know Ctrl-V + Ctrl-I is ?

You can look up the old ASCII charts for the control codes.

Key sequence Hex Character / escape sequence / description
------------+-----+-------------------------
CTRL+G 07 BEL ’a’ (bell)
CTRL+H 08 BS ’’ (backspace)
CTRL+I 09 HT ’ ’ (horizontal tab)
CTRL+J 0A LF ’
’ (new line)
CTRL+K 0B VT ’v’ (vertical tab)
CTRL+L 0C FF ’f’ (form feed)
CTRL+M 0D CR ’
’ (carriage ret)

Hint: Read across both columns in the "man ascii" output.

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important to the thread.)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

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On 2008-03-23 00:06, Nicholas Robinson wrote:

On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:38:46 Nicholas Robinson wrote:

On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:18:11 Amadeus W.M. wrote:

You would think specifying tab as a field separator for sort would work
like this:

cat file | sort -k 3 -t " "

It doesn't:

sort: multi-character tab ` '


So after a little search and some trial and error I got this to work:

cat file | sort -k 3 -t "`/bin/echo -e ' '`"


For my own curiosity, can someone please illuminate me as to why the
first incantation does not work as expected? Is there a more natural way
to specify other than echo?

Take the double quotes out in your first attempt. So command becomes

cat file | sort -k 3 -t

Nick


Sorry, I was a little bit quick off the mark. The doesn't yield a tab
character (see below) as you were implying and I went along with in the first
example! If you take the double quotes out as I suggested, then the field
separator becomes the character t!


I think (being a little more cautious this time!) that you want:

followed by Ctrl V followed by Ctrl I

If I remember correctly, sort interprets a tab as a default field separator
anyway.


As to the why: it is because the -t takes an argument which is a character.
Putting double quotes around it stops the being elided and so as two
characters and t are presented to sort which is expecting only one
character. Hence its moan. Try echo " " and you will see what I mean.


In my second attempt above, the Ctrl V stops the tab character (Ctrl I) being
expanded on the command line and the joins the tab character to the t.


HTH

Nick



Easier:
sort -k 3 -t $' '

See `man bash' and look for $'string'.

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Sjoerd Mullender

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On Sunday 23 March 2008 12:37:29 Sjoerd Mullender wrote:
> On 2008-03-23 00:06, Nicholas Robinson wrote:
> > On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:38:46 Nicholas Robinson wrote:
> >> On Saturday 22 March 2008 21:18:11 Amadeus W.M. wrote:
> >>> You would think specifying tab as a field separator for sort would work
> >>> like this:
> >>>
> >>> cat file | sort -k 3 -t " "
> >>>
> >>> It doesn't:
> >>>
> >>> sort: multi-character tab ` '
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> So after a little search and some trial and error I got this to work:
> >>>
> >>> cat file | sort -k 3 -t "`/bin/echo -e ' '`"
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> For my own curiosity, can someone please illuminate me as to why the
> >>> first incantation does not work as expected? Is there a more natural
> >>> way to specify other than echo?
> >>
> >> Take the double quotes out in your first attempt. So command becomes
> >>
> >> cat file | sort -k 3 -t
> >>
> >> Nick
> >
> > Sorry, I was a little bit quick off the mark. The doesn't yield a tab
> > character (see below) as you were implying and I went along with in the
> > first example! If you take the double quotes out as I suggested, then the
> > field separator becomes the character t!
> >
> > I think (being a little more cautious this time!) that you want:
> >
> > followed by Ctrl V followed by Ctrl I
> >
> > If I remember correctly, sort interprets a tab as a default field
> > separator anyway.
> >
> > As to the why: it is because the -t takes an argument which is a
> > character. Putting double quotes around it stops the being elided and
> > so as two characters and t are presented to sort which is expecting
> > only one character. Hence its moan. Try echo " " and you will see what I
> > mean.
> >
> > In my second attempt above, the Ctrl V stops the tab character (Ctrl I)
> > being expanded on the command line and the joins the tab character to
> > the t.
> >
> > HTH
> >
> > Nick
>
> Easier:
> sort -k 3 -t $' '
>
> See `man bash' and look for $'string'.
>

Easier? More characters certainly!

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On Sun, 2008-03-23 at 14:21 +1030, Tim wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 23:49 +0000, Amadeus W.M. wrote:
> > How do I know Ctrl-V + Ctrl-I is ?
>
> You can look up the old ASCII charts for the control codes.
>
> Key sequence Hex Character / escape sequence / description
> ------------+-----+-------------------------
> CTRL+G 07 BEL ’a’ (bell)
> CTRL+H 08 BS ’’ (backspace)
> CTRL+I 09 HT ’ ’ (horizontal tab)
> CTRL+J 0A LF ’
’ (new line)
> CTRL+K 0B VT ’v’ (vertical tab)
> CTRL+L 0C FF ’f’ (form feed)
> CTRL+M 0D CR ’
’ (carriage ret)
>
> Hint: Read across both columns in the "man ascii" output.
>
> --
> (This computer runs FC7, my others run FC4, FC5 & FC6, in case that's
> important to the thread.)
>
> Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
> I read messages from the pa characterublic lists.
>
That is only half of the answer. Ctrl-V forces the system to ignore the
action of the CTRL character that follows it and treat it as just
a character.
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================================================== =====================
Take your work seriously but never take yourself seriously; and do not
take what happens either to yourself or your work seriously. -- Booth
Tarkington
================================================== =====================
Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@sbcglobal.net

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>>
> Easier:
> sort -k 3 -t $' '
>
> See `man bash' and look for $'string'.
>
> --
> Sjoerd Mullender

Good alternative, thanks!


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