1 files changed, 69 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/examples/functions/sort-pos-params b/examples/functions/sort-pos-params
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/examples/functions/sort-pos-params
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#
+#  Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@case.edu>
+#
+#  Copyright 2001 Chester Ramey
+#
+#   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+#   any later version.
+#
+#   TThis program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#   GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+#   Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+
+# Sort the positional paramters.
+# Make sure the positional parameters are passed as arguments to the function.
+# If -u is the first arg, remove duplicate array members.
+sort_posparams()
+{
+	local -a R
+	local u
+
+	case "$1" in
+	-u)	u=-u ; shift ;;
+	esac
+
+	# if you want the case of no positional parameters to return success,
+	# remove the error message and return 0
+	if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
+		echo "$FUNCNAME: argument expected" >&2
+		return 1
+	fi
+
+	# make R a copy of the positional parameters
+	R=( "${@}" )
+
+	# sort R.
+	R=( $( printf "%s\n" "${R[@]}" | sort $u) )
+
+	printf "%s\n" "${R[@]}"
+	return 0
+}
+
+# will print everything on separate lines
+set -- 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 2
+sort_posparams "$@"
+
+# sets without preserving quoted parameters
+set -- $( sort_posparams "$@" )
+echo "$@"
+echo $#
+
+# sets preserving quoted parameters, beware pos params with embedded newlines
+set -- 'a b' 'a c' 'x z'
+
+oifs=$IFS
+IFS=$'\n'
+set -- $( sort_posparams "$@" )
+IFS="$oifs"
+
+echo "$@"
+echo $#
+
+sort_posparams