Sort By Length
Table of Contents
Sort lines and words by length
Quickly reorder a list by the number of characters in each line or word. Use this online text length sorter to sort lines shortest→longest or longest→shortest — faster and simpler than Excel formulas or manual editing.
How to use
- Paste your multiline text or a list of words into the input area.
- Choose whether to sort lines or words and pick ascending (shortest→longest) or descending (longest→shortest).
- Run the sorter, then copy the output. Use Undo to revert the change if needed.
Common use cases
- Sort lines by length online to spot merged or malformed lines quickly.
- Sort words by length online when studying vocabulary: focus on longer (typically harder) words first.
- Compare keyword lengths for SEO and marketing — decide between short-form and long-form messages.
- Group words or lines with similar character counts for poetry, rhythm, or UI constraints.
- Data cleaning: sort a list by character length to surface outliers in identifiers or codes.
Examples (before → after)
Lines (ascending — sort lines shortest to longest): Before: apple banana kiwi cherry After: kiwi apple cherry banana
Words (descending): Before: apple banana fig grapefruit After: grapefruit banana apple fig
Tips & edge cases
- This tool counts all characters: letters, digits, punctuation, spaces and emojis. It is a character-based operation (not byte-based). If you want to ignore leading/trailing spaces, run Trim first.
- Empty lines count as zero-length. Remove them beforehand with Remove Empty Lines if you don't want blanks in the results.
- Ties (items with equal character length) may change order after sorting. The tool does not apply a stable secondary alphabetical sort — use Undo to restore the original order.
- There are no fixed limits enforced by the tool itself — you can sort as much text as your browser can handle. Very large inputs may be limited by browser memory or CPU.
- Workflow tip: to find unique longest words, first run extract unique words, then paste the result here and sort by length.
- If you need both alphabetical and length sorting, try Alphabetize List or combine tools in sequence (alphabetize → remove duplicates → sort by length).
Related tools
- Find the longest line — use this when you only need the single longest item, not a full sorted list.
- Alphabetize List — sort the same list alphabetically instead of by length.
- extract unique words — extract distinct words before sorting to focus on unique vocabulary.
- Remove Empty Lines and Trim — recommended pre-steps to normalize input before sorting by character length.
FAQ
Does the tool count spaces, punctuation, or emojis?
Yes — every character in a line or word is counted, including spaces, punctuation and emojis. To remove leading/trailing spaces use Trim first.
If two lines have the same length, how is order determined?
Equal-length items may be reordered by the sort operation. The tool does not guarantee a stable secondary sort; use Undo immediately after sorting to restore the previous order if necessary.
Are there input size limits?
No fixed limits are enforced by the tool itself. Practical limits depend on your browser’s available memory and CPU — very large inputs may become slow or cause the browser to struggle.
How do I sort unique words by length?
First extract unique words with extract unique words, then paste the unique list into this sorter and choose ascending or descending order.