Line Sorter
Sort text lines in multiple ways: alphabetical, numerical, by length, natural sort, or random shuffle. Perfect for organizing lists, data cleaning, and text processing.
Options
Quick Presets
Sample Text
Sort Type Explanations
Usage Tips
- Use natural sort for version numbers
- Enable deduplication to clean repeated data
- Preserve indentation when processing code
- Case sensitive for precise sorting
- Random shuffle for creating test data
Multiple Sort Methods
Choose from alphabetical, numerical, length-based, natural, or random sorting with ascending/descending options.
Smart Processing
Remove duplicates, trim whitespace, handle empty lines, and preserve code indentation as needed.
Real-time Stats
View detailed statistics including line counts, duplicates removed, and processing summary.
What is a Text Sorter and Why You Need One
Organizing Text Has Never Been Easier
A text sorter is an online tool that automatically arranges lines of text in a specific order. Whether you're organizing a contact list, cleaning up data exports, or preparing content for analysis, manual sorting wastes precious time. Our free text sorter handles everything instantly - from simple alphabetical ordering to complex natural sorting of version numbers.
The tool processes your text entirely in the browser, meaning your data stays private and secure. No uploads to servers, no waiting, no privacy concerns. Paste your unsorted text, choose a sorting method, and get organized results immediately. Perfect for students, developers, data analysts, and anyone who works with lists or structured text data.
Beyond basic sorting, our tool removes duplicates, cleans whitespace, filters empty lines, and provides detailed statistics about your data. It's not just a sorter - it's a complete text list processing solution that saves hours of manual work and eliminates human error from repetitive organizing tasks.
Five Powerful Sorting Methods
Alphabetical Sort
Sort text A-Z or Z-A with case-sensitive or case-insensitive options. Perfect for organizing names, categories, or any text-based lists. Choose ascending for standard A-Z order or descending for Z-A reverse alphabetical.
Numerical Sort
Sort by numeric value, not alphabetically. Essential for prices, scores, IDs, or any number-based data. Unlike alphabetical sort where "10" comes before "2", numerical sort correctly orders numbers by value.
Natural Sort
Smart sorting that handles text with embedded numbers correctly. Ideal for version numbers, file names, or mixed alphanumeric data where both text and numbers matter.
How to Use the Online Text Sorter
Step-by-Step Guide
- 1Paste Your Text: Copy your unsorted list and paste it into the input box. Each item should be on a separate line. The tool automatically counts lines and provides instant feedback.
- 2Choose Sort Method: Select alphabetical for names, numerical for numbers, natural for version numbers, length for organizing by size, or random to shuffle data.
- 3Select Direction: Choose ascending (A-Z, 0-9, smallest first) or descending (Z-A, 9-0, largest first) based on your needs.
- 4Configure Options: Enable case sensitivity for precise sorting, check "Remove Duplicates" to clean your list, or trim whitespace for consistent formatting.
- 5Copy or Download: The sorted result appears instantly. Click "Copy" to paste elsewhere or "Download" to save as a text file for future use.
Quick Tips for Best Results
One Item Per Line
Ensure each item is on its own line. The tool processes line-by-line, so proper formatting is essential. If you have comma-separated data, use our find and replace tool to convert commas to line breaks first.
Use Quick Presets
Try the preset configurations for common tasks like email deduplication, version sorting, or URL cleaning. Presets automatically configure all options for specific use cases, saving time.
Check Statistics
Review the statistics panel to see how many lines were processed, duplicates removed, and empty lines filtered. This helps verify the sorting worked as expected.
Common Use Cases for Text Sorting
Alphabetizing Lists
Organize contact lists, employee rosters, product catalogs, or bibliographies in alphabetical order. Essential for creating directories, indexes, or any reference material where quick lookup matters.
Perfect for: Name lists, glossaries, table of contents, dropdown menus
Data Cleaning
Remove duplicate entries from email lists, customer databases, or inventory files. Combine sorting with deduplication to clean messy exports from CRMs, spreadsheets, or web scraping tools.
Perfect for: Email campaigns, database cleanup, lead generation
CSV Preparation
Prepare data for spreadsheet import by sorting and cleaning rows. Organize columns before import, remove duplicates, and ensure consistent formatting for smooth data transfer to Excel or Google Sheets.
Perfect for: Data import, report generation, batch processing
Version Number Sorting
Use natural sort to correctly order software versions, file revisions, or release tags. Natural sorting understands that v1.10.0 comes after v1.9.0, unlike simple alphabetical which would put v1.10.0 before v1.2.0.
Perfect for: Release notes, changelog organization, dependency management
Priority Organization
Sort tasks by priority numbers, organize bugs by severity, or rank features by user votes. Numerical sorting ensures items appear in correct priority order for project management and decision making.
Perfect for: Task lists, bug tracking, feature prioritization
Code Organization
Sort import statements, organize CSS properties, or alphabetize configuration keys. Enable "Preserve Leading Spaces" to maintain indentation when sorting code blocks or structured data.
Perfect for: Code cleanup, import organization, config file management
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between alphabetical and natural sorting?
Alphabetical sorting treats everything as text, comparing character by character. This means "file10.txt" comes before "file2.txt" because "1" comes before "2" alphabetically. Natural sorting is smarter - it recognizes numbers within text and sorts them numerically. With natural sort, "file2.txt" correctly comes before "file10.txt". Use natural sort for filenames, version numbers, or any text containing numbers that should be sorted by numeric value.
Does the text sorter work with different languages and special characters?
Yes! The sorter handles Unicode characters including accented letters, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and emojis. Alphabetical sorting uses locale-aware comparison, so accented characters sort correctly in their respective alphabets. For example, "é" sorts near "e" rather than at the end. However, be aware that different languages may have different sorting expectations - what's correct for French might differ from Swedish.
Can I sort data with multiple columns or CSV files?
The text sorter treats each line as a single unit and sorts by the entire line content. For CSV or tab-delimited data with multiple columns, it will sort by the first column (leftmost text). If you need to sort by a specific column, you'll need to either rearrange columns first using a spreadsheet tool or use our find and replace to restructure your data. Alternatively, import to Excel or Google Sheets for multi-column sorting.
What happens to blank lines and duplicates when I sort?
You control this with checkboxes! "Remove Empty Lines" filters out blank lines before sorting, giving you a clean result. "Remove Duplicates" keeps only the first occurrence of repeated lines. The statistics panel shows exactly how many lines were removed. For example, if you paste 100 lines with 10 blanks and 15 duplicates, you'll end up with 75 unique, non-empty sorted lines. These options are perfect for cleaning messy data exports.
How do I preserve indentation when sorting code?
Enable "Preserve Leading Spaces" to keep indentation intact when sorting code blocks or structured text. The sorter will maintain spaces or tabs at the beginning of each line while still sorting by content. However, note that sorting code line-by-line often breaks syntax - this feature is best for sorting import statements, CSS properties within a block, or configuration entries where each line is independent.
Why would I use random shuffle instead of sorting?
Random shuffle is perfect for creating test data, randomizing quiz questions, selecting random samples, or generating lottery-style draws. It's useful when you want to remove any existing order bias from data. For example, shuffle a list of names to create random team assignments, randomize survey questions to avoid order effects, or create unpredictable test datasets for quality assurance testing.
Tips and Best Practices
Sorting Efficiency
- •Use presets for common tasks: Quick presets automatically configure options for email lists, version numbers, or URLs, saving time on repeated operations.
- •Enable trimming by default: "Trim Whitespace" removes accidental spaces that cause identical-looking items to be treated as different. Always enable unless preserving exact spacing matters.
- •Check case sensitivity needs: Disable case sensitivity for most lists (treats "Apple" and "apple" as same). Enable only when exact case matching is required, like sorting Unix filenames or case-sensitive identifiers.
Data Quality
- •Review statistics before exporting: Check the numbers to ensure expected line counts. If statistics show unexpected duplicate removals, you might need case-insensitive deduplication.
- •Use length sort for data validation: Sorting by length quickly reveals outliers - items that are much longer or shorter than expected often indicate data quality issues.
- •Combine with other tools: Use our duplicate remover for advanced deduplication or character counter for detailed text analysis.
Related Text Processing Tools
Enhance your text processing workflow with these complementary free tools:
Duplicate Remover
Find and remove duplicate lines with advanced options for case sensitivity and frequency counting.
Text Reverser
Reverse the order of lines, words, or characters for creative effects or data manipulation.
Case Converter
Convert text between UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, and other formats instantly.
Character Counter
Count characters, words, lines, and analyze text statistics in real-time.
Find and Replace
Search and replace text with support for regex and batch replacements.
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