How to sort tab delimited out? <p>In linux(Ubuntu), one shell utility will output the following data</p> <pre><code>23827492 name_1 3984989229 name 2 8238937 another name </code></pre> <p>so there are 2 fields, number and name. What I need is to sort this output by the numbers in asc or desc in linux shell. What is the easiest way without engaging python/perl?</p>