When sorting the data below (which is already sorted by sort) using "sort
-n" which should numerically sort on the first column (equiv to sort -n -k 1)
gives inconsistent output w.r.t numbers with missing digits.
This output is derived from ns-2 simulator output, which outputs floating point numbers in a variety of ways (including exponential formatting). So I figure sort -n doesn't convert the data to be sorted to a floating point number. This bug should probably be filed upstream, but I thought I'd start here first...
--------------------------------------- 20.366 1 81 4962 3957 20.368 2 157 5633 18345 20.372 1 81 5155 4082 <----- 20.37 4 116 5573 2057 <----- 20.374 1 57 4962 3958 20.376 2 116 5633 18348 20.378 4 116 5573 2059 20.38 1 57 4962 3959 <----- 20.382 2 116 5633 18350 <----- 20.384 4 116 5573 2061 20.386 1 47 4962 3960 20.388 2 99 5633 18352 20.392 2 81 5633 18354 <-------- 20.39 4 157 5573 2063 <------ 20.394 2 116 5633 18350
------ Additional comments from [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 2004-03-01 01:04 PM ------
in the sort.c code, I see this comment, which could explain the problems I see:
static int
general_numcompare (const char *sa, const char *sb)
{
/* FIXME: add option to warn about failed conversions. */
/* FIXME: maybe add option to try expensive FP conversion
only if A and B can't be compared more cheaply/accurately. */
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