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Sort Lines by Length

Order a list from shortest line to longest, or the reverse.

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Quick Tool Overview

Sort Lines by Length orders a list from shortest to longest or the reverse, measured in characters or in words. It is the fastest way to find the malformed row in a CSV, the headline that will be truncated, or the translation that will break the layout.

What it does
Sorts lines by how long they are
You give it
A list, CSV, set of headlines or translation file
You get back
The sorted lines with their measured lengths
Best for
Finding outlier rows and checking length limits
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About the Sort Lines by Length

Sorting by length is how you find the odd row. In a CSV export the malformed line is nearly always the longest one; in a list of headlines the one that will be truncated is the longest; in a set of translations the one that will break the layout is the longest. Sorting brings all of them to one end.

Lines can be measured in characters or in words, since those answer different questions — characters for a field limit, words for readability. Ties are broken alphabetically so the result is stable and repeatable rather than arbitrary. Each line is shown with its length, and the shortest, longest and average are reported alongside.

Key features of the Sort Lines by Length

Characters or words

Measure by characters for a field limit, or by words for readability and translation comparison.

Stable, repeatable ties

Lines of equal length are ordered alphabetically, so re-running the sort gives an identical result.

Length shown per line

Each row carries its measurement, so you can see where the cut-off falls without counting.

Summary statistics

Shortest, longest and average length are reported for the whole set alongside the sorted list.

Trimming option

Ignore leading whitespace so indented code or a nested list is measured by its content.

How to use the Sort Lines by Length

  1. 1

    Paste your lines

    A list, a CSV, a set of headlines or a translation file.

  2. 2

    Choose the measure

    Characters for field limits, words for readability.

  3. 3

    Pick the direction

    Shortest first to find empty rows, longest first to find the ones that will break something.

  4. 4

    Read the length column

    Each line is shown with its measured length, plus the shortest, longest and average for the set.

Frequently asked questions

Alphabetically. Two lines of the same length always come out in the same order, so re-running the sort gives an identical result rather than an arbitrary one.

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