How to use
Paste one value per line into “Input” and pick a mode under “Sort by”. Which options you can use depends on the mode.
- “Direction” is available only for “Alphabetical” and “Length”. In the other two modes it is locked, with the note “This mode has no direction.”
- “Sort language”, “Compare numbers by value (2 < 10)” and “Case sensitive” apply only to “Alphabetical”.
- “Exclude empty lines” works in all four modes.
Sort modes
- Alphabetical: sorts in character order. “Direction” is either “A to Z” or “Z to A”.
- Length: sorts by the number of characters in each line. “Direction” is “Shortest first” or “Longest first”. Characters are counted as you see them on screen, so one accented letter is 1 character and so is an emoji built from several code points. Sorting
été,ab,👨👩👧andabcdwith “Shortest first” gives👨👩👧(1 character),ab(2),été(3),abcd(4). Lines of equal length keep the order you entered them in. - Reverse order: doesn’t sort. It simply reverses the current order, which is handy for flipping a newest-first log to oldest-first.
- Shuffle: puts the lines in random order. It uses the browser’s cryptographic random numbers, and every possible order is equally likely. Press “Shuffle again” next to the result to draw a new order.
How the sort language changes the order
“Alphabetical” follows the dictionary order of the language chosen under “Sort language”. There are five to choose from: 한국어, English, 日本語, Deutsch and Español. The language of the page you are reading is selected to begin with. These are the cases where the same list comes out differently depending on that choice.
| Lines entered | Sort language | Result |
|---|---|---|
| banana, 사과, Apple, 가지 | 한국어 | 가지, 사과, Apple, banana |
| banana, 사과, Apple, 가지 | Any of the other four | Apple, banana, 가지, 사과 |
| oso, ñandú, nube, nido | Español | nido, nube, ñandú, oso |
| oso, ñandú, nube, nido | Any of the other four | ñandú, nido, nube, oso |
| Zebra, Ärger, Apfel, Azur | All five | Apfel, Ärger, Azur, Zebra |
Under Korean rules, Korean script (here 사과, “apple”, and 가지, “eggplant”) comes before Latin letters. Under the other languages, Latin letters come first. Only Spanish rules treat ñ as a separate letter that follows n. German umlauts (ä, ö, ü) sit right beside a, o and u whichever language you pick.
In every language, lines that begin with a symbol come first, then digits, then letters. A line that begins with a space goes to the top as well, just like a symbol.
Options for numbers, case and empty lines
- Compare numbers by value (2 < 10): when off, digits are compared one position at a time like letters, giving
item1,item10,item2. When on, the numbers inside a line are read by size, givingitem1,item2,item10. Use it for file names and numbered items. - Case sensitive: when off,
appleandApplecount as equal and stay in the order you entered them. When on, lowercase comes first within the same word:apple,Apple,APPLE. Accents are told apart regardless of this option, sorésumécomes afterresume. - Exclude empty lines: drops empty lines before sorting. Only lines with no characters at all are dropped. A line holding just spaces or tabs stays and rises to the top of the result.