Text Sorter
Sort Lines Alphabetically, by Number or by Length

Jobs This Text Sorter Handles for You

This text sorter works online and puts any list in order the moment you paste it. Names, keywords, file names, prices, tags or whole CSV rows all work, and the sorted copy appears right beside the original.

You choose the rule. Sort alphabetically, sort so that 2 comes before 10, sort by the number inside each line, sort by length, or shuffle the list at random. After that, copy the sorted list or save it as sorted.txt.

The sorting happens in your browser, which keeps the list on your own device. That matters when the list holds customer names, email addresses or anything else you would rather keep to yourself.

How Alphabetical Order Really Works

Sorting text looks simple until accents, capitals and other alphabets show up. A plain computer sort compares character codes, so every capital letter lands before every small one, and é falls after z.

This tool uses the browser’s own Intl.Collator instead. It knows the alphabet of each language, so apple and Apple sit together, and Éclair lands among the other words that start with e.

Sort Lines Alphabetically

Paste one item per line and pick Alphabetically. The list comes back from A to Z at once, and Z to A takes one more click. Because the sort is stable, lines that count as equal keep the order you gave them.

Two switches change what counts as equal. Ignore capitals treats Apple and apple as the same word, and Ignore accents does the same for café and cafe. Both help most when you also remove duplicates.

Natural Sort for Numbers Inside Text

A plain A to Z sort reads digits one at a time, so File 10 lands before File 2. That is correct for a computer, yet it looks wrong to every person who reads the list.

Natural sort fixes this by reading each run of digits as one number. As a result, File 1, File 2 and File 10 come out in the order people count. The idea has a long history under the name natural sort order, and file managers use it for exactly this reason.

Sort by Number, by Length or at Random

By number value looks for the first number in each line and sorts on it. It understands minus signs, decimals and both 1,234.50 and 1.234,50, so prices and measurements sort correctly. Lines without any number move to the end, and the checks table tells you how many.

By length puts the shortest lines first, which helps when you trim a keyword list or look for the longest titles. Meanwhile, In random order shuffles the list with your browser’s secure random generator, so every order is equally likely. Press Shuffle again for a new draw.

Sort a CSV by One Column

Choose One column under Compare, then pick the column number and the character that splits it: comma, tab, semicolon, pipe or space. The sorter reads quoted CSV fields properly, so a value like "Smith, John" stays in one piece.

Combine this with By number value to rank rows by price, score or date. In addition, tick Keep the first line on top, and the header row stays where it belongs while the data below it moves.

Ordering People by Surname

Pick The last word under Compare, and Ada Lovelace sorts under L, not under A. This works for guest lists, author lists and team pages, where people expect surnames in order.

How Swedish, German, Spanish and Arabic Sort Letters

Languages disagree about the alphabet. Swedish puts å, ä and ö after z, while German files ä next to a. Spanish keeps ñ as its own letter after n, and Arabic has an order of its own.

The Alphabet menu follows the page language by default, and you can switch to English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Arabic or Swedish. Under the hood, the rules come from the Unicode Collation Algorithm, the same standard that databases and operating systems follow.

Character Codes, Like the Unix sort Command

Sometimes you need the strict computer order instead, for example to match the output of sort on a server or to compare two lists line by line. Choose Character codes, and capitals come before small letters, exactly as LC_ALL=C sort does.

Repeats, Empty Rows and Extra Spaces

Lists copied from elsewhere are seldom tidy. Therefore the sorter trims spaces and drops empty lines by default, since both would otherwise float to the top. Untick either switch whenever you need the list exactly as it came.

Switch on Remove duplicates, and only the first copy of every entry stays. For a tool that removes repeats without sorting at all, and even shows how often each one appeared, try our duplicate line remover.

Checks That Explain the Result

Below the result, a short checks table explains anything that might surprise you. For example, it warns when an A to Z sort put item 10 before item 2 and suggests natural sort instead.

It also counts lines without a number in number mode, rows that lack the chosen column, and repeated items you kept. So when an order looks odd, the reason sits one glance away.

Where People Use a Text Sorter

SEO teams alphabetize keyword lists before they group them. Teachers sort class lists by surname, and developers sort imports, config keys and word lists. Writers, on the other hand, use random order to pick names, prompts or the order of speakers.

Shop owners sort product feeds by price, while researchers sort survey answers by length to find the detailed ones first. In every case, the list goes in messy and comes out in the order the job needs.

Tips for Clean Sorting

Put one item per line before you sort. If your list sits in a paragraph with commas, switch Items to Split by commas instead. Also, fix odd capitals first with our case converter, so similar words line up.

When the order matters to a reader, check the result once by eye. Finally, count the items with our word counter, or compare two versions of a list with the diff checker.