[SOLVED] Issue with Ordering array of strings by their int value Bash

Issue

Say I have an array of strings Names, such as,

_billy_2 _bobby_1 _william_3

I am trying to order them descending by their numeric value,

i'am doing so by using something like:

sortNames=($( printf '%s\n' "${names[@]}" | sort -k3 -t'_' -r))

However, this works until I have an array such as:

_billy_115 _bobby_3 _william_4

This will print out:

_william_4 _bobby_3 _billy_115

Rather than:

_billy_115 _william_4 _bobby_3

Any ideas as to why?

Solution

Using sed to seperate each string onto a new line

$ sed 's/[^ ]*/&\n/g' input_file | rev | sort -r | rev | xargs
_william_3 _billy_2 _bobby_1

$ sed 's/[^ ]*/&\n/g' - This will match up to the final digit for each string, return the match and add a new line

rev - Reverse so the sort can be carried on the numbers

sort -r - Reverse sort

Answered By - HatLess