CSV Sort– Sort CSV by Column Online

The sorting process follows these steps: (1) Parse the CSV into a 2D array of rows and columns. (2) Separate the header row from the data rows. (3) Compare values in the selected column using the chosen sort algorithm. (4) For numeric values, compare as numbers to get proper numeric ordering. (5) For text values, use localeCompare for culturally correct alphabetical ordering. (6) Reassemble the sorted data rows with the header row on top.

The comparison logic first attempts to parse both values as numbers. If both parse successfully (and are not empty strings), numeric comparison is used. Otherwise, the tool falls back to string comparison using JavaScript's localeCompare method, which handles Unicode characters, accented letters, and case-insensitive ordering correctly.

The sort is stable, meaning rows with equal values in the sort column maintain their original relative order. This property is useful when sorting by multiple columns sequentially -- sort by the secondary column first, then by the primary column, and rows with equal primary values will remain ordered by the secondary column.

Numeric vs. text sorting: Be aware that columns mixing numbers and text will sort as text. If you have a column with "1", "2", "10", "abc", the sort treats all values as text when non-numeric values are present, which means "10" would come before "2".

Date sorting: For best results with dates, use ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). Dates in this format sort correctly as strings. Other date formats like MM/DD/YYYY may not sort chronologically with text-based sorting.

Multi-column sort: To sort by multiple columns, sort by the least important column first, then sort again by the most important column. Because our sort is stable, equal values in the primary column retain their secondary sort order.

Empty values: Empty cells sort to the beginning in ascending order. If you want them at the end, try descending sort, or use the CSV Filter tool to remove empty rows first.