Sort Lines of a Text File

Although manipulating text files is an uncomplicated operation, editing files with numerous entries can require a considerable amount of time. Automating processes such as sorting text entries can disengage desktop users from time-demanding monotonous tasks.

What Sort Lines of a Text File can do

• Build Default Path (Core.Programming.Function) — sets msg.fixture_path to $Home$/templates/text-manipulation/sort-lines-of-text-file/fixtures/unsorted.txt.
• Intro Dialog (Core.Dialog.MessageBox, info) titled Description explaining the flow.
• Input Dialog titled Please select a text file to sort..., default msg.fixture_path → msg.selected_text_file.
• Branch On Selection (Core.Programming.Function, outputs: 2) — requires a non-empty path ending in .txt, otherwise skips to the completion dialog.
• Read File (Core.FileSystem.ReadFile, optBase64: false) → msg.file_contents_raw.
• Sort Lines (Core.Programming.Function) — splits on \n, drops a trailing empty line, sorts with localeCompare, rejoins with a trailing newline → msg.sorted_text.
• Build Sorted Path (Core.Programming.Function) — derives msg.sorted_file_path as <dir>\<stem>_Sorted<ext> next to the input.
• Write Sorted File (Core.FileSystem.WriteFile, optMode: truncate, optBase64: false) at msg.sorted_file_path.
• Results Dialog (Core.Dialog.MessageBox, info, title Flow completed!) showing both paths, followed by a final Example completed! dialog and Core.Flow.Stop.

Behind the scenes

• Sorting uses localeCompare so ordering is locale-aware rather than naive code-point order.
• Sort Lines pops a single trailing empty line before sorting and re-adds one \n at the end — this preserves the common POSIX convention without injecting a blank line into the sorted output.
• Build Sorted Path always joins with a backslash, matching Windows-style output even when the input path uses forward slashes.
• Files are read and written with optBase64: false, so the content round-trips as UTF-8 text.