Sort lines alphabetically, numerically, by length, or randomly. Remove duplicates and empty lines. Add line numbers, prefix, and suffix — all in your browser.
Text Sorter & Deduplicator is a free online tool that sorts, deduplicates, and transforms lines of text entirely in your browser. It supports six sorting methods (alphabetical, natural, by length, numeric, reverse, and shuffle), ascending or descending direction, duplicate removal, empty line filtering, whitespace trimming, line numbering, and custom prefix/suffix wrapping. It is a text processing Swiss Army knife for developers, data analysts, and writers — all running locally with zero data transmission.
Use Text Sorter whenever you need to organize lists: sort CSS class names alphabetically, deduplicate log entries, sort imports in code files, randomize quiz questions, sort a shopping list, organize a changelog, clean up pasted data from spreadsheets, or prepare sorted word lists for documentation. The prefix/suffix feature is handy for wrapping lines into code arrays, SQL IN clauses, or CSV fields.
Developers use Text Sorter to alphabetically sort import statements, organize CSS properties, and deduplicate dependency lists. Data analysts use it to clean and sort extracted data, remove duplicate entries from CSVs, and randomize test datasets. Technical writers use it to sort glossary terms, organize reference lists, and number items. DevOps engineers use it to sort configuration values, deduplicate environment variable lists, and clean log output. The prefix/suffix and separator features make it easy to convert lists into JSON arrays, SQL values, or any delimited format.
Essential terms and definitions related to Text Sorter & Deduplicator.
A sorting algorithm that handles embedded numbers intelligently by comparing numeric substrings as numbers rather than character-by-character. In natural sort, "file2.txt" comes before "file10.txt" because 2 < 10 numerically. Standard alphabetical sort would place "file10.txt" before "file2.txt" because the character "1" comes before "2" in ASCII order. Windows Explorer and macOS Finder both use natural sort for filenames.
The process of identifying and removing duplicate entries from a dataset. In text processing, deduplication compares lines and keeps only the first occurrence of each unique line. Deduplication can be case-sensitive (treating "Apple" and "apple" as distinct) or case-insensitive (treating them as duplicates). It is commonly used to clean log files, configuration lists, and data exports.
An unbiased algorithm for generating a random permutation of a sequence. The algorithm iterates through the array from the last element to the first, swapping each element with a randomly chosen element from the remaining unshuffled portion. This produces a uniformly random permutation where every possible ordering is equally likely. The Text Sorter uses Fisher-Yates for the "Shuffle" sort method.
Alphabetical sort treats all characters as text and sorts strictly by character code: "item1", "item10", "item2", "item20", "item3". Natural sort recognizes embedded numbers and sorts them numerically: "item1", "item2", "item3", "item10", "item20". Use natural sort when your lines contain version numbers, filenames with numbers, or any mixed text-and-number data.
When "Remove duplicate lines" is enabled, only the first occurrence of each line is kept and all subsequent duplicates are removed. By default, comparison is case-insensitive (so "Apple" and "apple" are considered duplicates). Enable "Case-sensitive sorting" to treat differently-cased lines as distinct.
By default, the tool splits input by newline characters (one item per line). If your data uses a different delimiter (comma, semicolon, pipe, tab), enter it in the Separator field to split and rejoin by that character instead. For example, entering "," will treat each comma-separated value as a separate item.
Prefix adds a string before each line, and suffix adds a string after each line in the output. This is useful for wrapping lines into code syntax: for example, prefix '"' and suffix '",' converts a plain list into JSON array elements. Prefix/suffix are applied after sorting and deduplication.
The original text remains in the input field — the sort only affects the output. You can always copy from the input field to get the original order. If you want to completely reverse the current line order, use the "Reverse Lines" sort method.
There is no hard line limit since all processing happens in your browser. Performance depends on your device, but modern browsers handle tens of thousands of lines without issues. For extremely large datasets (100K+ lines), processing may take a moment.
Common errors developers encounter and how to resolve them.
Numeric sort places some lines at the end Lines that do not contain any digits are assigned an infinite sort value and placed at the end. Ensure all lines contain at least one number if you want meaningful numeric sorting. For mixed content, use natural sort instead.
Duplicates not being removed as expected Check whether "Case-sensitive sorting" is enabled. When case-sensitive, "Apple" and "apple" are treated as different lines. Disable it for case-insensitive deduplication. Also check for invisible trailing whitespace — enable "Trim whitespace per line" to normalize lines before comparison.
Output shows original order instead of sorted If "Reverse Lines" is selected, the output shows lines in reversed original order (not alphabetically reversed). To get reverse alphabetical order, select "A → Z" with "Descending" direction.