ldg@yoda.byu.edu (12/19/89)
The MPW Sort tool is supposed to, among other things, let you sort by
a range of columns in a line, a field within a line, or by a range of
columns within a field. Now, I can get the first two methods to work just
fine, but cannot for the life of me get MPW to sort using a range of
columns within a field as the key. For example, given a file full of
lines similar to the following:
HD:Data:Plots:ME1075_140.MSD
HD:Data:Plots:HX1075_35.MSD
HD:Data:Plots:ME1800_35.MDD
I would expect to be able to tell MPW something like the following:
sort -fs '.:' -f '4.3+4,4.8+2,4.1-2,5' filename > SortedFile
to sort the file by the four digit number (1800,1075) then the next (35,140)
number, then by the two-letter prefix, (ME,HX) and lastly by the file
extension (MSD,MDD). It doesn't work. No attempt at sorting takes place.
I can't even get
sort -fs '.:' -f '4.3+4' filename > SortedFile
to work. I have tried it with and without the quotes around the field
separator string ('.:') and even changing the colons and periods to spaces,
to no avail. What am I doing wrong? If anybody has gotten MPW (v 3.0) to
sort by subranges within a field, please, please, send me an example so
I will have some hope. Otherwise I will assume it is a bug and report it
as such.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Lyle D. Gunderson N6KSZ CIS: 73760,2354 GEnie: L.GUNDERSON
zebolskyd@acoust.byu.edu "Any technology without some attendant risk
350 CB / BYU / Provo, UT 84602 of misuse is probably trivial" --Loise Kohl