Sort of different column using different types, works, only strange thing with spaces

Question

I have this file

1  you
3  me
2  their
4  us

this pipe works fine (it order first column by number, second by letters) is a pipe of another user found here

paste <(awk '{print $1}' file.txt | sort -k1n) <(awk '{print $2}' \
file.txt | gsort -V)

but now use a word with spaces

1  "and me"
3  me
2  their
4  us

The same command produce this

1   me
2   their
3   us
4   "and

How to produce a result like this?

1   and me
2   their
3   us
4

I have tried:

But give me the incorrect result

awk and sort use any whitespace as separator by default, so if your fields contain something else too, you'd need to set another separator. E.g. tab. Or, if it's a fixed-width field, use cut. So depends, what's the input format? — ilkkachu
– ilkkachu, Commented Feb 6 at 7:43

Miri B · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-06 15:51:54Z

1

Going off of your code, just need to tweak the awk part a little bit:

paste <(awk '{print $1}' file_name | sort -k1n) <(awk '{$1=""; gsub(/^[ \t]*|"/,""); print $0}' file_name | sort -V)

answered Feb 6 at 15:51

Miri B

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1 Answer 1