Sort Lines

How to sort lines

1. Paste your list into the input box, one item per line.
2. Choose how to Sort by: alphabetical, natural order, numeric value, line length, reverse current order or random shuffle.
3. Tick the options you need: Descending, Ignore case, Remove duplicates, Remove empty lines or Trim spaces.
4. The sorted list appears in the result box. Click Sort again at any time, for example to get a new random shuffle.
5. Copy the result and paste it wherever you need it.

The number of lines and the number of lines removed by the cleaning options are shown under the result.

The sort orders explained

Alphabetical (A → Z) uses real language rules rather than raw character codes. Accented letters are sorted next to their base letter, so “éclair” comes right after “eclair” and before “zebra”, instead of being pushed to the end of the list as a basic sort would do. The sort follows the language of the page, which matters for French, German or Scandinavian words.

Natural order treats groups of digits as numbers. A plain alphabetical sort puts “item10” before “item2” because it compares character by character; natural order gives item1, item2, item10, the way a person would expect. It is ideal for file names, chapter titles and version numbers.

Numeric value looks for the first number in each line and sorts by that value: “2 kg”, “10 kg”, “100 kg”. Negative numbers, decimals (3.5 or 3,5) and thousands separators (1,200 or 1 200) are recognised. Lines that contain no number are kept at the end, in their original order.

Line length sorts from the shortest to the longest line, counting characters. Lines of equal length keep their original order.

Reverse current order flips the list upside down without sorting it: the last line becomes the first.

Random shuffle mixes the lines using your browser’s cryptographic random generator, so every order is equally likely. Use it to draw names, randomise a playlist or shuffle quiz questions. Each click on Sort gives a new shuffle.

Cleaning options

• Descending reverses the direction: Z to A, largest number first, longest line first.
• Ignore case treats “apple” and “Apple” as equal when sorting and when removing duplicates. Without it, lowercase and uppercase versions are kept apart.
• Remove duplicates keeps only the first occurrence of each line.
• Remove empty lines drops blank lines, including lines that only contain spaces.
• Trim spaces removes spaces and tabs at the start and end of every line, which avoids surprises when a stray space changes the sort order.

The line ending of your text (Windows or Unix) is preserved in the result.