Vim has a very powerful built-in sort utility, or it can interface with an external one. In order to keep only unique lines in Vim, you would:

:{range}sort u

Yes, it's that simple.

You could create a range in advance, such as 'a,. (from mark 'a' to the current line) or you could create one on-the-fly using visual selection by pressing ':' in visual mode, after selecting the text you wish to sort, to get a range of '<,'> on the command line.

If you like using an external sort utility instead, you can do it just as easily. For example, Unix sort, removing duplicate lines:

:{range}!sort -u

Many other systems also have an external sort utility, but the options and capabilities will differ. It is probably better to use the built-in Vim sort unless you are looking for a specific feature of the external sort (or using an old Vim without the :sort command).

Contents 1 Examples 1.1 Sort in reverse 1.2 Sort, removing duplicate lines 1.3 Sort using the external Unix sort utility, respecting month-name order 1.4 Numeric sort 2 See also 3 References 4 Comments

ExamplesEdit

Sort in reverse Edit

:%sort!

Sort, removing duplicate lines Edit

:%sort u

Sort using the external Unix sort utility, respecting month-name orderEdit

:%!sort -M

("respecting month-name order" means January < February < ... < December)

Numeric sort Edit

:sort n

(this way, 100 doesn't precede 20 in the sort)

See alsoEdit

• 374 Use filter commands to process text
• 588 How to sort using visual blocks
• 758 Search and sort by selection
• 800 Sorting lines in a file based on the number of words in each line
• 923 Sort lines by a specified word number
• 667 Working with CSV files sort by CSV field
• 128 Use Unix command-line tools in Windows links to download GNU sort for Windows
• 648 Uniq - Removing duplicate lines techniques to remove duplicate lines

ReferencesEdit

• :help :sort

CommentsEdit

 TO DO 

• Probably need some general :sort command info.
• Give examples of numeric sort and using regex sort.
• Clean up my "see also" list. It's useful now for a comprehensive list of related tips, some of which need work. At least should add a note on point of tip.
• If we're going to mention an external sort tool, we may as well include the following with a brief explanation. Vim could do this, but only with a complex regex. Or perhaps better, mention it in VimTip374 or VimTip923 in "see also". -k2 sorts on the second field (word by default).

:!sort -k2

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