# sort on

## Synopsis

    sort on <property-list>

## Description

Controls the order in which some algorithms will attempt to arrange files on the disk. The following properties are supported:

Property | Description | Can compare with
--- | --- | ---
name | The name of the file. | A string or regular expression
id | The catalog node ID of the file. | A number
size | The size of the file; this uses the size of the data fork, if present, or the resource fork otherwise. | A number
creator | The four character creator code for this file. | A number, string or regular expression
type | The four character type code for this file. | A number, string or regular expression
content modification date | The last time at which the file was modified. | A string or number of seconds since 1970
attribute modification date | The last time at which the file’s attributes were modified. | A string or number of seconds since 1970
access date | The last time at which the file was accessed. | A string or number of seconds since 1970
creation date | The time at which the file was created. | A string or number of seconds since 1970
backup date | The time at which the file was backed-up. | A string or number of seconds since 1970
owner | The UID of the owner of the file. | A number
group | The GID of the group of the file. | A number
mode | The file’s UNIX mode. | A number
admin flags | The file’s administrative flags. | A number
owner flags | The file’s owner-specific flags. | A number
resource fork size | The total size of the file’s resource fork. | A number
data fork size | The total size of the file’s data fork. | A number
containing folder | The folder immediately containing the file (for sorting, this property refers to the catalog node ID of the containing folder, not the name). | A string, regular expression, or the catalog ID of the folder

By default, `sort on` will sort in ascending order; if you want to sort a particular property in descending order instead, you can prefix its name with a `-` sign.

## Example

    // Sort application files into some sort of order

    class "Applications" {
      match files where file is within "/Applications"
      color "#ffff00"
      sort on containing folder, name
    }

    // Sort documents by descending date (i.e. newest first)

    class "Documents" {
      match files where file is within "/Users/bob/Documents"
      color "#00ffff"
      sort on -creation date
    }

## See also

class