Operation of Sorting "Sort Lines as Decimals"
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I’m using NPP 8.7.1 on Windows. I tried to sort a list of lines starting with IPv4 addresses using the Sort Lines as Decimals function in the Edit menu.
That sorts on the first and second octet, but leaves the 3rd and 4th octet unsorted.
I tried the lexical sort, which was closer, but of course sorted like this:
172.16.0.12 172.16.0.127 172.16.0.15 172.16.0.18 172.16.0.186 172.16.0.19 172.16.0.20 172.16.0.212In a future update, could the decimal sort be modified to handle three decimals to properly sort ipv4, treating all octets as integers? Or is there a plug-in that does that?
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@Tim-G said in Operation of Sorting "Sort Lines as Decimals":
In a future update, could the decimal sort be modified to handle three decimals to properly sort ipv4, treating all octets as integers?
Not very likely, but you need to check the FAQ from this site to see how to put in a feature request that the developers would see.
I think you might be able to do it by:
- regex replacement to expand all octets to be exactly 3 digits long (i.e., add leading zeroes to octets that are one or two digits long)
- sort all lines decimal ascending
- create a zero-width block selection right after the second
.in each line - sort all lines decimal ascending again
- regex replacement to remove any extra leading zeroes of each octet
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Hello, @tim-g, @alan-kilborn and All,
@tim-g, I do not understand, because, personally, if I use your INPUT test, below :
172.16.0.12 172.16.0.127 172.16.0.15 172.16.0.18 172.16.0.186 172.16.0.19 172.16.0.20 172.16.0.212And I run the
Edit > Line Operations > Sort Lines As Integers Ascending, I do get the expected OUTPUT text, below :172.16.0.12 172.16.0.15 172.16.0.18 172.16.0.19 172.16.0.20 172.16.0.127 172.16.0.186 172.16.0.212
My Debug Info :
Notepad++ v8.7.2 (64-bit)
Build time : Nov 25 2024 - 18:27:38
Path : D:\872_x64\notepad++.exe
Command Line :
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
Periodic Backup : OFF
OS Name : Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
OS Version : 22H2
OS Build : 19045.5131
Current ANSI codepage : 1252
Plugins :
mimeTools (3.1)
NppConverter (4.6)
NppExport (0.4)
ComparePlus (1.2)Best Regards,
guy038
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@guy038 said in Operation of Sorting "Sort Lines as Decimals":
Edit > Line Operations > Sort Lines As Integers Ascending, I do get the expected OUTPUT text
Now, that’s interesting, and I wouldn’t have expected it. :-)
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So after some further investigation (i.e., looking at the code), it appears there is a lot of logic behind Notepad++'s integer sorting. You’d think it would simply refuse to sort if it sees non-integer data for the sort “key”, but this is not the case, obviously.
As another example, I would have expected “bad things” from trying to sort (integer, ascending) the following:
zzz8440 zzz20 zzz21482 zzz852 zzz917 zzz1038 zzz14 zzz243 zzz258 zzz1166but it actually produces:
zzz14 zzz20 zzz243 zzz258 zzz852 zzz917 zzz1038 zzz1166 zzz8440 zzz21482On the other hand, attempting to sort (integer, ascending):
zzz 1038 zzz 8440 zzz 14 zzz 917 zzz 258 zzz21482 zzz 243 zzz 20 zzz 1166 zzz 852doesn’t really produce happy results:
zzz21482 zzz 1038 zzz 1166 zzz 8440 zzz 243 zzz 258 zzz 852 zzz 917 zzz 14 zzz 20I understand why it does what it does (after examining the code and thinking about it), but as a user of the software maybe I don’t want to do too much thinking (just…wanna…sort).
And, it seems like if the software is going to “help me out” by ignoring e.g. the
zzztext, maybe an integer sort could also ignore any leading spaces on integer data.It doesn’t really affect me one way or another, because I would do my sorting of numerical data without any surrounding non-numerical data, and then move it into place with other text.
The user manual is silent on the nuances of such sorting, stating only As Integers means that 10 will sort as being bigger than 2.
So I guess OP on this thread “lucks out” in that @guy038 's sorting tip for IP4 data works.
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Hi, @tim-g, @alan-kilborn and All,
Alan, I did some other tests regarding the
Edit > Line Operations > Sort Lines As Integers Ascendingoption and, seemingly, any number of the list must be aligned on the left side in order that the sort is coherent !For example, the three following sorts are correct :
zzz8440 zzz14 zzz20 zzz20 zzz21482 zzz243 zzz852 zzz258 zzz917 => zzz852 zzz1038 zzz917 zzz14 zzz1038 zzz243 zzz1166 zzz258 zzz8440 zzz1166 zzz21482zzz 8440 zzz 14 zzz 20 zzz 20 zzz 21482 zzz 243 zzz 852 zzz 258 zzz 917 => zzz 852 zzz 1038 zzz 917 zzz 14 zzz 1038 zzz 243 zzz 1166 zzz 258 zzz 8440 zzz 1166 zzz 21482zzz abc 8440 zzz abc 14 zzz abc 20 zzz abc 20 zzz abc 21482 zzz abc 243 zzz abc 852 zzz abc 258 zzz abc 917 => zzz abc 852 zzz abc 1038 zzz abc 917 zzz abc 14 zzz abc 1038 zzz abc 243 zzz abc 1166 zzz abc 258 zzz abc 8440 zzz abc 1166 zzz abc 21482Whereas the next two sorts are wrong, because the numbers are aligned on the right :
zzz 8440 zzz21482 zzz 20 zzz 1038 zzz21482 zzz 1166 zzz 852 zzz 8440 zzz 917 ?? zzz 243 zzz 1038 zzz 258 zzz 14 zzz 852 zzz 243 zzz 917 zzz 258 zzz 14 zzz 1166 zzz 20zzz 8440 zzz 21482 zzz 20 zzz 1038 zzz 21482 zzz 1166 zzz 852 zzz 8440 zzz 917 ?? zzz 243 zzz 1038 zzz 258 zzz 14 zzz 852 zzz 243 zzz 917 zzz 258 zzz 14 zzz 1166 zzz 20
Now, look this last sort, which is correct even when the first number, between two consecutive lines, are equal but not the second number ;-))
zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 14 abc 325 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 abc 468 zzz 20 abc 468 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 258 abc 1571 zzz 8440 abc 9854 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 917 abc 0 zzz 917 abc 0 => zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 1166 abc 357 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 14 abc 325 zzz 1166 abc 357 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 8440 abc 9854 zzz 258 abc 1571 zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 21482 abcd 12345 zzz 21482 abcd 12345
However, if the column of letters does not have the same length for all the records, all text, located after the first number correctly sorted, uses the default sort, whatever this column of letters is justified on the left or right side or the next column or numbers is aligned on the left side :
zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 917 abcde 0 ?? zzz 917 abcde 0 zzz 1166 357 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1166 357 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 21482 abcd 12345 zzz 21482 abcd 12345zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 852 abc 695 ?? zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 917 abcde 0 zzz 917 abcde 0 zzz 1166 357 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1166 357 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 21482 abcd 12345 zzz 21482 abcd 12345zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 abc 1985 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 20 bc 468 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 852 abc 695 zzz 917 abc 9568 zzz 917 abcde 0 ?? zzz 917 abcde 0 zzz 1166 357 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1038 abc 320 zzz 1166 357 zzz 14 bc 325 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 243 abc 8784 zzz 8440 abc 778913 zzz 258 c 1571 zzz 8440 c 9854 zzz 1166 abc 8 zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 21482 abcd 12345 zzz 21482 abcd 12345
Note also that, when two records have a first identical number and the next column of letters is of the same length too, the subsequent numbers seems to be sorted numerically, again ! This is the case of the last two sorted records, of the last four lists above, as
51is obviously inferior to12345zzz 21482 abcd 51 zzz 21482 abcd 12345Best Regards,
guy038
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Peter should document all of this in the user manual.
(Just kidding, Peter!)