in reply to How to capture a column from a set of lines

If the data is fairly large (in another post you mention a million lines), dump the data into a database, index the fields you need to sort by and use SQL to sort the data. Using a database will probably also solve the major part of your other tasks with this data.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

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