Alphabetize a List

Sort a list A–Z or Z–A, by length, in reverse, or shuffled. Numbers sort the way people expect, and duplicates can go at the same time.

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Result

Your sorted list appears here.

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Natural sorting, and why it matters

A plain alphabetical sort compares characters one at a time, which produces the familiar wrong answer: “Chapter 1, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 2”. This tool uses a locale-aware comparison that recognises digits as numbers, so you get “Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 10, Chapter 11”.

The same comparison handles accented and non-English letters properly, sorting them with their base letter rather than dumping them at the end of the list.

Sorting by length

Less obvious but genuinely useful: sorting by length puts the outliers at the ends. For keyword lists, the longest lines are your long-tail phrases. For a list of headlines, the longest are the ones that will be truncated. For data, an unexpectedly short line is often a row that failed to export properly.

Frequently asked questions

How are numbers sorted?
Numerically, not as text. “item 2” comes before “item 10”, which is what you almost always want. A plain text sort would put “item 10” first because “1” sorts before “2”.
Is the sort case sensitive?
Not by default, so “apple” and “Apple” sort next to each other. Turn on “Match case when sorting” for a strict sort where capitals and lowercase are treated as different.
How are accented letters handled?
They sort next to their base letter, so “café” sorts with the C words rather than at the end of the list. That is the behaviour of a proper locale-aware sort.
Can I randomise a list instead?
Yes. “Randomise” shuffles the lines with a Fisher–Yates shuffle, which gives every order an equal chance — useful for draws, running orders and test groups.

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