Sort lists alphabetically

Summary

The sort macro combines one or more lists and sorts their contents alphabetically (lexicographically). The sorting is case-sensitive with uppercase letters before lowercase.

Syntax 

${sort;<list>[;<list>...]}

Parameters

  • list - One or more semicolon-separated lists to sort

Behavior

  • Combines all provided lists
  • Sorts elements alphabetically
  • Case-sensitive sorting (A-Z before a-z)
  • Returns comma-separated sorted list

Examples

Sort a simple list:

${sort;cherry,apple,banana}
# Returns: "apple,banana,cherry"

Sort with mixed case:

${sort;Zebra,apple,Ant,banana}
# Returns: "Ant,Zebra,apple,banana"

Sort multiple lists:

${sort;red,green;blue,yellow}
# Returns: "blue,green,red,yellow"

Sort and filter:

${sort;${filter;${packages};com\.example\..*}}

Use Cases

  • Organizing lists alphabetically
  • Creating ordered reports
  • Sorting package or class names
  • Normalizing list order for comparison
  • Generating sorted documentation

Notes

  • Case-sensitive lexicographic sorting
  • Uppercase letters sort before lowercase
  • For numeric sorting, use ${nsort}
  • See also: ${nsort} for numeric sorting
  • See also: ${reverse} to reverse order

See test cases in MacroTestsForDocsExamples.java