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LESSON 385 OF 404 · PROJECTS: COMMAND-LINE TOOLS

CLI Tool: sort v3 — Numeric Sort in Go

Practice

Build the next version of the Unix sort command, this time with the -n flag baked in. Each input line is the string form of an integer that fits in 32 bits (an optional leading -, no leading +; leading zeros such as "007" are allowed). Sort the lines numerically (not lexicographically) in ascending order, and return the original strings joined by newlines (\n). Lines with the same numeric value keep their original relative order (a stable sort). The real sort -n would break such ties by comparing the text; this version does not. If the list is empty, return the empty string.

Note: lexicographic sort would put "100" before "20"; numeric sort puts 20 before 100.

Function signature:

func sortLines(lines []string) string

Example:

Input: lines = ["100", "20", "3", "10"]

Output: "3\n10\n20\n100"

When printed:
3
10
20
100

Sort with sort.SliceStable and a less-function that parses each string via strconv.Atoi, then join the result with strings.Join.

The full solution:
func sortLines(lines []string) string {
    sortedLines := append([]string{}, lines...)
    sort.SliceStable(sortedLines, func(i, j int) bool {
        ai, _ := strconv.Atoi(sortedLines[i])
        aj, _ := strconv.Atoi(sortedLines[j])
        return ai < aj
    })
    return strings.Join(sortedLines, "\n")
}

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    Sort V3 in Go

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