Sorting multiple keys with Unix sort

The -k option is what you want.

-k 1.4,1.5n -k 1.14,1.15n

Would use character positions 4-5 in the first field (it's all one field for fixed width) and sort numerically as the first key.

The second key would be characters 14-15 in the first field also.

(edit)

Example (all I have is DOS/cygwin handy):

dir | \cygwin\bin\sort.exe -k 1.4,1.5n -k 1.40,1.60r

for the data:

12/10/2008  01:10 PM         1,564,990 outfile.txt

Sorts the directory listing by month number (pos 4-5) numerically, and then by filename (pos 40-60) in reverse. Since there are no tabs, it's all field 1 to sort.

Take care though:

If you want to sort the file primarily by field 3, and secondarily by field 2 you want this:

sort -k 3,3 -k 2,2 < inputfile

Not this: sort -k 3 -k 2 < inputfile which sorts the file by the string from the beginning of field 3 to the end of line (which is potentially unique).

-k, --key=POS1[,POS2]     start a key at POS1 (origin 1), end it at POS2
                          (default end of line)