Sort Lines

Sort text lines alphabetically with options for descending order, unique lines, and case sensitivity. This sort lines tool is useful for keywords, names, and copied lists.

Whether you call it sort lines or sort text lines, this free tool handles it instantly in your browser.

Line-based text

19 chars3 words

Options

Descending

Unique lines only

Case sensitive

Sorted linesLive preview

apple banana banana

Ctrl+Enter to copy | Ctrl+Z to undo

Example usage

Example input

banana apple banana

Example output

apple banana

Batch Processing

Enter multiple inputs, one per line. Each line will be processed separately.

Input (one per line)

Results

Why this tool?

Everything runs right in your browser — no uploads, no sign-up, no waiting. Your text never leaves your device.

Quick tips

•Outputs update live as you type.
•Use the sticky copy button to grab results quickly.
•Bookmark this page for fast access.

How it works

Paste line-based text into the input field.
The tool sorts each non-empty line in ascending or descending order.
Optional unique and case-sensitive modes help you control how lines are compared.

Use cases

Sort keyword lists before exporting.

Organize copied names, tags, or notes quickly.

Deduplicate simple line lists with unique mode.

Prepare clean, ordered text for spreadsheets and docs.

Sorting is more opinionated than it looks

A computer sorting "by default" uses character codes, where every uppercase letter sorts before every lowercase one — so Zebra lands before apple. That is almost never what a human wants, which is why sorting tools have to make a deliberate choice about case. Numbers are the other classic surprise: sorted as text, 10 comes before 2, because the comparison happens character by character and "1" is less than "2".

The workaround for numbers is zero-padding (01, 02, 10), which makes text order match numeric order. It is the same reason well-named files use 2026-07-04 rather than 4-7-2026: the ISO date format is designed so that alphabetical order and chronological order are the same thing.

Sort, dedupe, or alphabetize?

This tool sorts lines with control over direction, uniqueness, and case — the general-purpose option for lists and code. If your goal is specifically dictionary-style A–Z or Z–A ordering of words and names, our Alphabetical Order tool is tuned for that and explains reverse alphabetical order along the way. If you only want repeats gone while keeping the original order, Remove Duplicate Lines does that without touching sequence.

A note on the unique option: sorting groups identical lines together, which makes duplicates trivial to spot and remove in one pass. That is why "sort and dedupe" is the traditional pairing in command-line work — the sort is what makes the deduplication cheap.

Cleanup