To sort lines alphabetically, paste your list into a line sorter, pick ascending or descending, and copy the ordered result. For lists of numbers, switch on numeric mode so they sort by value rather than digit by digit. The free sort lines tool does it instantly in your browser, with case options and optional dedupe, nothing uploaded.
Sorting a list by hand is slow and mistake-prone past a dozen items. A sorter does it in one step, but there are two settings, numeric mode and case handling, that decide whether the result is right or quietly wrong.
A to Z, and the gotcha with numbers
Plain alphabetical sorting compares lines character by character, left to right. For words, that gives the order you expect. For numbers, it does not. Sorted alphabetically, these lines come out wrong:
1
10
2
21
3That is because “1” comes before “2” as a character, so “10” lands right after “1”. It is technically correct alphabetical order and completely useless for numbers. Numeric mode fixes it by reading each line as a value, giving 1, 2, 3, 10, 21. Any time your lines are numbers, or start with a number you care about ordering by, switch numeric mode on.
How to sort lines
Step 1: Paste your lines
Drop in your list, one item per line, into the line sorter.
Step 2: Pick the order and mode
Choose A to Z or Z to A. Switch on numeric sorting for number lists, and case-insensitive matching if you want capitalisation ignored.
Step 3: Copy the sorted list
The list reorders instantly, with duplicates removed too if you turned that on. Copy it out.
Case-insensitive sorting, and why it usually helps
By default, many sorts put all uppercase letters before all lowercase ones, because of how characters are ordered internally. So “Banana”, “apple”, “Cherry” would sort as “Banana”, “Cherry”, “apple”, with the capitalised words bunched at the top. That is rarely what you want for a human-readable list.
Case-insensitive sorting ignores capitalisation when comparing, so the same three sort as “apple”, “Banana”, “Cherry”, in true alphabetical order regardless of case. For glossaries, name lists and most prose, leave it on. Turn it off only when capitalisation is genuinely part of the sort, which is uncommon.
Sort and dedupe in one pass
A list you are sorting often has duplicates too. Rather than sorting, then removing duplicates separately, switch on the dedupe option and do both at once. Identical lines collapse to a single entry as the list is ordered, so you end up with a clean, sorted, unique list in one step. This is the natural pairing for tags, keywords and reference lists where you want them alphabetised and deduplicated together.
Real uses
- Glossaries and references. Alphabetise terms or sources so a reader can scan them quickly.
- Number lists. Order IDs, prices or quantities by value with numeric mode.
- Cleaning exports. Sort a messy export and drop duplicates before you import it elsewhere.
- Comparing lists. Two lists are far easier to diff once both are sorted, because matching items line up.
When order must stay put
Sorting is the wrong move when the original sequence carries meaning, like ranked items or steps. If you only need to remove repeats without reordering, use an order-preserving dedupe instead. See how to remove duplicate lines while keeping order.