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6.1.34 sorthead

Usage:

   sorthead [-tail] [-down] [-nullsfirst] <nrows> <key-list>

Performs a sort on the table according to the value of one or more algebraic expressions, retaining only <nrows> rows at the head of the resulting sorted table. The sort key expressions appear, as separate (space-separated) words, in <key-list>; sorting is done on the first expression first, but if that results in a tie then the second one is used, and so on. Each expression must evaluate to a type that it makes sense to sort, for instance numeric.

If the -tail flag is used, then the last <nrows> rows rather than the first ones are retained.

If the -down flag is used the sort order is descending rather than ascending.

Blank entries are by default considered to come at the end of the collation sequence, but if the -nullsfirst flag is given then they are considered to come at the start instead.

This filter is functionally equivalent to using sort followed by head, but it can be done in one pass and is usually cheaper on memory and faster, as long as <nrows> is significantly lower than the size of the table.

Syntax for the <key-list> argument is described in Section 10.


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STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set
Starlink User Note256
STILTS web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk