# Is there a windows/unicode based sorting program for other scripts?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 29, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156 "2008-07-29T22:25:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lashingdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f9b8f/32.png) [@lashingdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lashingdog)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156/1 "2008-07-29T22:25:25Z")

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I am looking for a program that can sort words in my text file, but…

It needs to handle non-Latin scripts.  
It needs to sort words alphabetically (Unicode based?).  
It needs to be powerful enough to sort a text file filled with 100,000 words.  
It needs to be windows based (I know nothing of linux).

The program I am looking for is something [like this](http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/locexp?_=en_US&d_=en&x=col) but more powerful (this only can do ~700 of my words); and it needs to function [like this one](http://billposer.org/Software/msort.html) but be based on windows (I run the vista platform).

I need all the help I can get, so if there is anyone out there who knows something about programs or computers and can help me, then thanks.

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**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156/2 "2008-07-30T07:35:07Z")

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Most decent plain text editors will have a File-\>Sort menu. I just checked my Ultra Edit Professional and it can sort UTF-8 files just fine.

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**Author:** ![lashingdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f9b8f/32.png) [@lashingdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lashingdog)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156/3 "2008-07-30T18:15:10Z")

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[QUOTE=groman]  
Most decent plain text editors will have a File-\>Sort menu. I just checked my Ultra Edit Professional and it can sort UTF-8 files just fine.  
[/QUOTE]  
Thanks groman, I guess I never used anything outside of microsoft word and notepad. stupid me. :smack:

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156/4 "2008-07-30T23:13:43Z")

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I don’t have a big non-Latin Unicode file to test with, but you can probably do this from the command line:

```auto

type oldfile.txt|sort > newfile.txt

```

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-windows-unicode-based-sorting-program-for-other-scripts/458156/5 "2008-07-30T23:27:33Z")

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On further reflection, SORT will handle Unicode input so this should work:

```auto

sort oldfile.txt > newfile.txt

```