sort

Create a row vector and sort its elements in ascending order.

A = [9 0 -7 5 3 8 -10 4 2];
B = sort(A)

B = 1×9

   -10    -7     0     2     3     4     5     8     9

Create a matrix and sort each of its rows in ascending order.

A = [3 6 5; 7 -2 4; 1 0 -9]

A = 3×3

     3     6     5
     7    -2     4
     1     0    -9

B = sort(A,2)

B = 3×3

     3     5     6
    -2     4     7
    -9     0     1

Create a matrix and sort its columns in descending order.

A = [10 -12 4 8; 6 -9 8 0; 2 3 11 -2; 1 1 9 3]

A = 4×4

    10   -12     4     8
     6    -9     8     0
     2     3    11    -2
     1     1     9     3

B = sort(A,'descend')

B = 4×4

    10     3    11     8
     6     1     9     3
     2    -9     8     0
     1   -12     4    -2

Starting in R2017a, you can create string arrays using double quotes, and sort them using the sort function. Sort strings in each column of a string array according to Unicode® dictionary order.

A = ["Santos","Burns"; ...
     "Jones","Morita"; ...
     "Petrov","Adams"];
B = sort(A)

B = 3×2 string
    "Jones"     "Adams" 
    "Petrov"    "Burns" 
    "Santos"    "Morita"

Sort the strings in each row.

B = sort(A,2)

B = 3×2 string
    "Burns"    "Santos"
    "Jones"    "Morita"
    "Adams"    "Petrov"

Create an array of datetime values and sort them in ascending order, that is, from the earliest to the latest calendar date.

ds = {'2012-12-22';'2063-04-05';'1992-01-12'};
A = datetime(ds,'Format','yyyy-MM-dd')

A = 3×1 datetime
   2012-12-22
   2063-04-05
   1992-01-12

[B,I] = sort(A)

B = 3×1 datetime
   1992-01-12
   2012-12-22
   2063-04-05

I = 3×1

     3
     1
     2

B lists the sorted dates and I contains the corresponding indices of A.

Access the sorted elements from the original array directly by using the index array I.

A(I)

ans = 3×1 datetime
   1992-01-12
   2012-12-22
   2063-04-05

Create two row vectors that contain related data in the corresponding elements.

X = [3 6 4 2 1 5];
Y = ["yellow" "purple" "green" "orange" "red" "blue"];

First sort the vector X, then sort the vector Y in the same order as X.

[Xsorted,I] = sort(X)

Xsorted = 1×6

     1     2     3     4     5     6

I = 1×6

     5     4     1     3     6     2

Ysorted = Y(I)

Ysorted = 1×6 string
    "red"    "orange"    "yellow"    "green"    "blue"    "purple"

Create a 2-by-2-by-2 array and sort its elements in ascending order along the third dimension.

A(:,:,1) = [2 3; 1 6];
A(:,:,2) = [-1 9; 0 12];
A

A = 
A(:,:,1) =

     2     3
     1     6


A(:,:,2) =

    -1     9
     0    12

B = sort(A,3)

B = 
B(:,:,1) =

    -1     3
     0     6


B(:,:,2) =

     2     9
     1    12

Use A(:), the column representation of A, to sort all of the elements of A.

B = sort(A(:))

B = 8×1

    -1
     0
     1
     2
     3
     6
     9
    12

Sort the elements of a complex vector by their real parts. By default, the sort function sorts complex values by their magnitude, and breaks ties using phase angles. Specify the value of 'ComparisonMethod' as 'real' to instead sort complex values by their real parts. For elements with equal real parts, sort breaks the tie based on their imaginary parts.

A = [1+2i 3+1i 1i 0 -1i];
B = sort(A,'ComparisonMethod','real')

B = 1×5 complex

   0.0000 - 1.0000i   0.0000 + 0.0000i   0.0000 + 1.0000i   1.0000 + 2.0000i   3.0000 + 1.0000i