Sort Lines
Sort lines alphabetically or by length.
How to Use Sort Lines
- 1Paste your text with lines to sort
- 2Choose sorting order: A→Z, Z→A, or by length
- 3Click Sort Lines to apply
- 4Copy or download the sorted result
About Sort Lines
Sort Lines reorders the lines of your text according to your chosen sorting method. Options include alphabetical ascending (A→Z), alphabetical descending (Z→A), by shortest line first, or by longest line first. This covers the most common use cases for organizing data, lists, and configuration files.
Alphabetical sorting uses locale-aware comparison (localeCompare), which correctly handles international characters, accented letters, and Unicode text. Sorting by length is useful for organizing items from the shortest to the longest entry or vice versa.
Processing runs in your browser with no server upload required. Sort Lines is invaluable for organizing keyword lists, sorting CSS properties alphabetically, alphabetizing country or city lists, and reordering TODO items by priority prefix.
Key Features of Sort Lines
- Sort lines alphabetically A→Z or Z→A
- Sort lines by length: shortest first or longest first
- Locale-aware alphabetical sort that handles international characters correctly
- One-click sorting with instant results
- One-click copy button for the sorted output
- Download result as a plain .txt file
- No line count limit — handles large lists efficiently
- Runs entirely in-browser with no data transmission
Examples
Sort a keyword list alphabetically
Arrange a list of SEO keywords in A→Z order for easier review and deduplication.
Input
text converter alpha sort bulk rename add prefix
Output
add prefix alpha sort bulk rename text converter
Sort CSS properties by length for review
Reorder CSS property declarations from shortest to longest to visually spot patterns.
Input
color: red; background-color: blue; margin: 0; font-family: sans-serif;
Output
color: red; margin: 0; background-color: blue; font-family: sans-serif;
Common Use Cases
- Sorting keyword lists alphabetically for SEO analysis and deduplication
- Alphabetizing CSS property declarations for consistency and readability
- Organizing country, city, or product lists in A→Z order for display
- Sorting TODO items or task lists by priority prefix alphabetically
- Reordering configuration file entries for easier merging and review
- Sorting import statements or dependency lists in code for consistency
Troubleshooting
Uppercase letters sorting before lowercase letters unexpectedly
Solution
In ASCII order, uppercase letters (A-Z) sort before lowercase letters (a-z). The localeCompare method used here is case-insensitive by default and handles this more naturally, but you can normalize case first with the Lowercase Converter for consistent results.
Numbers sorting alphabetically instead of numerically
Solution
Alphabetical sorting treats numbers as text: "10" sorts before "2" because "1" < "2" in character comparison. To sort numerically, you would need a specialized numeric sort which is not available in this tool.
Blank lines appearing at the top or bottom after sorting
Solution
Empty lines sort to the top in A→Z order (empty string is less than any character). Use the Remove Empty Lines tool before sorting to eliminate blank lines and get a clean sorted result.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is alphabetical sorting case-sensitive?
The tool uses JavaScript's localeCompare() with locale-aware settings, which generally treats uppercase and lowercase versions of the same letter as equal. This means "Apple" and "apple" sort together rather than separately based on ASCII values.
Does it handle international and accented characters correctly?
Yes. localeCompare() is Unicode-aware and handles characters like é, ü, ñ, å, and Cyrillic or other scripts correctly according to their natural alphabetical order in their respective languages.
Can I sort numbers numerically?
The tool sorts alphabetically only, which means numbers are sorted as text ("10" before "2"). For numeric sorting, you would need to process your data in a programming environment with a numeric comparator.
Does sort by length sort by character count or word count?
Sorting by length uses the number of characters in each line (including spaces and punctuation), not the word count. The shortest line by character count appears first in ascending length order.
Is stable sorting used? Are lines with the same value kept in order?
JavaScript's Array.sort() is specified as stable in modern engines (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). Lines that compare as equal will maintain their relative original order.
Is there a line count limit?
No. Sorting runs locally in your browser using JavaScript's native sort algorithm. Lists with tens of thousands of lines are sorted in milliseconds on modern hardware.
Is my data sent to a server?
No. All sorting is performed locally in your browser. Your text is never uploaded, stored, or transmitted to any server.
Can I sort in random order?
Random shuffle is not a mode offered by this tool. The available modes are A→Z alphabetical, Z→A reverse alphabetical, shortest-first, and longest-first. For random shuffling, a dedicated shuffle tool or a short programming script would be more appropriate.