How to use the List Sorter
Paste your list with one item per line.
Tick Ignore case if "Apple" and "apple" should count as the same item.
Click Remove Duplicates, a sort order, or Deduplicate & Sort A–Z to do both.
Copy the result. Empty lines and extra spaces around items are removed automatically.
Examples
item 10 item 2 Item 2 item 1
item 1 item 2 item 10 (with Ignore case on)
Sorting options
- Sort A–Z puts items in ascending alphabetical order.
- Sort Z–A reverses it.
- Sort by length puts the shortest items first, with ties sorted alphabetically. Useful for spotting outliers or building keyword lists.
- Remove Duplicates keeps the first occurrence of each item in its original position.
- Deduplicate & Sort A–Z does both in one step.
Sorting uses your browser's language rules, so accented letters sort next to their base letters (é next to e) instead of after Z.
Natural number ordering
Simple sorters compare text character by character, which puts "Item 10" before "Item 2" because "1" comes before "2". This tool uses natural ordering: numbers inside items are compared by value. File names, version numbers, chapter titles and product codes therefore come out in the order a person would expect.
Removing duplicates
By default, duplicates must match exactly, so "Apple" and "apple" are kept as two items. Tick Ignore case to treat them as the same; the first version in your list is kept. Leading and trailing spaces are always trimmed before comparing, so "apple " and "apple" are duplicates.
Working with a messy export? Run it through Remove Extra Spaces first. To pull email addresses or links out of a document before deduplicating, use the Email & URL Extractor.
Common uses
- Alphabetising bibliographies, glossaries and reading lists.
- Cleaning email or customer lists before importing them into a CRM or newsletter tool.
- Deduplicating keyword research exports.
- Sorting tags, categories and menu items.
- Ordering names for seating plans, rosters or credits.
To wrap every item in quotes, commas or HTML tags afterwards, use Add Prefix and Suffix.
Worked example: cleaning a sign-up list
You have merged three event sign-up exports and want one clean list of names:
- Paste all three columns of names, one name per line.
- Tick Ignore case, because some people typed their names in capitals.
- Click Deduplicate & Sort A–Z.
The result has each person once, in alphabetical order, with the first spelling you pasted kept. Blank rows from the exports have been removed, and stray spaces around names trimmed, so " Ada Lovelace" and "Ada Lovelace" are treated as the same person.
Sorting tips
- To sort by surname, the surname must come first on each line ("Lovelace, Ada"). Use Find and Replace or a spreadsheet to rearrange names first.
- To sort numbers only, natural ordering already puts 2 before 10, so no padding with zeros is needed.
- To shuffle or reverse a list without sorting, use the Text Reverser's Reverse Lines mode.
Frequently asked questions
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