About the Text Sorter
Drop in a list and reorder it however the job demands: alphabetically A to Z or Z to A, shortest line to longest, exact reverse of the current order, or a random shuffle when you need names drawn from a hat. Sorting a bibliography, tidying a list of imports, ordering keywords for a campaign or randomising quiz questions all take a single click instead of a spreadsheet detour.
The extra switches handle the fiddly parts. Case-insensitive sorting stops every capitalised word from jumping ahead of lowercase ones — computers otherwise place Zebra before apple. You can also drop empty lines and strip duplicates in the same pass, turning a messy paste into a clean, ordered list in one operation. Sorting runs instantly in your browser no matter the direction you pick, and nothing you paste is ever uploaded.
Features
- Sort A–Z, Z–A, by line length or reversed
- Random shuffle for draws and randomised lists
- Case-insensitive mode for natural alphabetical order
- Remove empty lines and duplicates while sorting
- Instant results even on long lists
- Everything sorts locally in your browser
How to sort lines of text online
- Paste your lines into the input area.
- Pick a sort order: alphabetical, by length, reverse or shuffle.
- Toggle case-insensitivity if capitals shouldn't matter.
- Enable empty-line and duplicate removal if you want a cleanup too.
- Copy the sorted list out with one click.
Frequently asked questions
Why do capital letters sort before lowercase ones?
Plain-text sorting compares character codes, and every uppercase letter has a lower code than every lowercase letter — so 'Zebra' lands above 'apple'. Enable case-insensitive sorting to get the dictionary-style ordering people expect, where words are compared by their letters regardless of capitalisation.
How does sorting by length work?
Lines are ordered by their character count, shortest first. It's surprisingly useful: arranging CSS rules or import statements by length, spotting outliers in data exports, finding the longest headline that still fits a layout, or building word lists for games and puzzles ordered by difficulty.
Is the random shuffle actually random?
Yes — each shuffle produces an unbiased random ordering, meaning every arrangement of your lines is equally likely and no line tends to stick near its original spot. Shuffle repeatedly for a fresh order each time. It's handy for prize draws, seating plans, playlists and randomised question banks.
Can I sort numbers with this tool?
Alphabetical sorting treats numbers as text, so 10 sorts before 2 because the character 1 comes before 2. Pad numbers with leading zeros — 02, 10 — if you need numeric order from an alphabetical sort, or sort by length first for a rough numeric grouping of plain integers.
Does sorting change my text in any other way?
No — lines are only reordered, never edited, unless you enable the cleanup options. Turn on empty-line removal to drop blanks, and duplicate removal to keep one copy of each repeated line. Your original text stays untouched in the input, so you can re-sort a different way instantly.