Sort Lines Alphabetically (A–Z, Numeric, Random)
Paste a list and sort it A to Z, by length or numerically — with numbers treated as numbers, so item 10 follows item 9.
Fast, easy and free — your answer appears as you type, and whatever you enter stays on your device.
Paste a list and sort it — A to Z, Z to A, by length, or shuffled into random order. Numbers inside lines are treated as numbers, so item 10 lands after item 9 instead of after item 1, and duplicates can be dropped in the same pass.
How to use it
- Paste the listOne item per line — names, filenames, tasks, anything.
- Pick an orderAlphabetical either way, shortest or longest first, or a random shuffle.
- Copy the resultThe sorted list is ready to paste back wherever it came from.
Sorting is the fastest way to see a list
An unsorted list hides its contents. Sorted, the same lines answer questions at a glance: duplicates sit next to each other, gaps in a numbered sequence show as jumps, the odd item out surfaces immediately. Half the value of sorting is not the order itself — it is what the order makes visible.
That is also why by-length ordering earns its place: shortest-first floats the outliers — empty-ish entries, stray single words — while longest-first finds the lines that will overflow whatever column or label they are headed for.
Natural order, the sort humans expect
The classic computer-sort embarrassment is a folder listing that runs file1, file10, file11, file2. Character-by-character comparison is doing exactly what it was told and exactly the wrong thing. Natural ordering fixes it by comparing digit runs numerically, and this tool applies it everywhere — filenames, versions, addresses with house numbers, episode lists. If you have ever renamed files to file01 just to make sorting behave, this is the setting that makes that unnecessary.
Where the shuffle comes in
Reverse-alphabetical and random look like novelty options and are quietly practical. Z to A puts late-alphabet entries first for once — fair rotation for the people forever at the bottom of attendance lists. Shuffle gives an unbiased order for presentations, code review assignment, or picking who goes first, with every arrangement equally likely and a fresh one on every change.
Lists often contain names and unreleased work; everything here stays on your device and is gone when the tab closes.
Questions people ask
Why does item 10 usually sort before item 9?
Plain text sorting compares character by character, and the '1' in '10' comes before '9'. This tool uses natural ordering instead, which reads digit runs as whole numbers — so file2 precedes file10, and version 1.9 precedes 1.10. For any list with numbering, this is almost always what you meant.
How are accents and case handled?
Sorting is locale-aware: é files with e, and with Ignore case on (the default), Apple and apple count as equal rather than uppercase sorting first. Turn it off when case distinctions genuinely matter.
What does shuffle use — is it really random?
A Fisher–Yates shuffle, the standard unbiased algorithm: every ordering is equally likely. Good for picking presentation order or assigning review pairs. It is not cryptographic randomness, so use a proper draw for anything with money on it.
Can it sort and dedupe at once?
Yes — tick Remove duplicates and repeats are dropped before sorting, with the count shown. For deduplication with the original order kept instead, the remove-duplicates tool next door does exactly that.
What happens to blank lines?
They are dropped. In a list, empty lines are almost always accidents of copying, and keeping them would scatter gaps through the sorted result.
Is there a size limit?
None imposed — thousands of lines sort instantly. Everything stays on your device, so a customer list or an unreleased filename dump is safe to paste.