Unix Sort by Column Number

I always forget the flags to use when using UNIX sort.  Here is a list of common useful flags.

Flags

-k: selects the column number to sort

-n: indicates you are sorting numeric values so use numeric ordering (ex: 10, 11, not 10, 100)

-r: sort in reverse (descending) order for this column

An example line of code that sorts by numeric values in column 2 in descending order would be as follows.