How do I sort lines in reverse order in Vim?

Explanation

Vim's built-in :sort command accepts a ! flag to reverse the sort order, giving you descending-order sorting without any external tool. It works on any line range, including the current visual selection.

How it works

• :'<,'> — the range automatically inserted when you press : from Visual mode, covering the selected lines
• sort — Vim's built-in sort command
• ! — reverses the sort order (descending instead of ascending)

You can also combine flags:

• :sort! n — reverse numeric sort
• :sort! i — reverse case-insensitive sort
• :sort! u — reverse sort, removing duplicate lines
• :%sort! — reverse-sort the entire file

Example

Start with these lines selected visually:

banana
apple
cherry
date

After :'<,'>sort!:

date
cherry
banana
apple

Tips

• :sort n sorts numerically (treats leading numbers as the sort key); :sort! n reverses it — handy for ranking lists
• :sort /pattern/ sorts by the text matched by the pattern, giving you key-based sorting on delimited data
• For a quick whole-file reverse sort, use :%sort! without entering Visual mode