Alphabetizer
Paste a list, get it back in order. It handles a column from a spreadsheet, a comma-separated line, or anything in between, and it sorts “Item 10” after “Item 9” rather than before it.
How to use this tool
- 1Paste your list — one item per line, or separated by commas.
- 2Choose A to Z or Z to A.
- 3Turn on “Remove duplicates” or “Ignore a leading A, An or The” if you need them.
- 4Copy the sorted list, or download it as a text file.
Alphabetical order is not one thing
Three decisions change the result, and most tools make them silently. Whether capitals sort before lowercase. Whether numbers inside a string are read as numbers. And whether a leading article counts. This page makes all three a choice, because the right answer depends entirely on what the list is for.
Sorting names
A list of people needs to be surname-first before it is sorted, otherwise you get everybody filed under their first name. Rewrite the list as “Surname, First” first — then alphabetise it, and the order will match every register, index and attendance sheet anybody expects.
Frequently asked questions
Why does “Item 10” come after “Item 9” here?
Because the sort reads the digits as a number rather than as text. A plain alphabetical sort puts “Item 10” before “Item 9”, since 1 comes before 9 — technically correct and almost never what anybody wants.
What does “Ignore a leading A, An or The” do?
It sorts “The Great Gatsby” under G rather than T. That is how bibliographies, library catalogues and film indexes file titles, so it is the setting to use for any list of works.
Where do accented letters end up?
Next to their plain equivalents — “Éclair” sorts with the E words, not after Z. That is the behaviour an English-language reader expects, and it is what the case-insensitive setting gives you.
More free tools you can open
See all tools →Click any card below to open that tool. All of them are free.
- List & Whitespace ToolsReverse List – Flip Any List OrderReverse List flips a list end to end, keeping every item intact. Paste a column or a comma-separated line and get it back in the opposite order.Open this tool
- List & Whitespace ToolsLetter Sorting – Sort Letters in a WordLetter Sorting puts the letters of a word or a phrase in alphabetical order. Useful for anagrams, word games and checking two words use the same letters.Open this tool
- List & Whitespace ToolsRemove Line BreaksRemove Line Breaks joins broken lines back into paragraphs — the usual fix for text copied out of a PDF or an email. Paragraphs are kept, or removed too.Open this tool
- List & Whitespace ToolsRemove Whitespace – Clean Up SpacingRemove Whitespace strips double spaces, tabs, trailing spaces and blank lines from pasted text. Clean up a copy-paste before it goes anywhere else.Open this tool
- ConvertersComma Separator – Column to CSVComma Separator tool to quickly add commas between words, numbers or lines. Format and separate your text online with ease.Open this tool
- ConvertersColumn to Comma Separated ListColumn to Comma Separated List turns a spreadsheet column into one comma-separated line. Add quotes for SQL, or tags for HTML, and copy the result.Open this tool