How to sort rows between time A (in format “hh:mm:ss”)and time B using awk shell script (like below?)?

Question

I want to sort rows between time A and time B in format "00:00:00" using awk shell script like (by just comparing the time columns of time directly) :

awk '{
        if ("15:21:14" <= $1 && $1 <= "15:51:14")
        {print $0}
     }'

I got the right rows, but is it absolutely right for me to do this?
If not, what is the right way?

Answer 1

Assuming when you said "...I want to sort rows..." you really meant you want to SELECT rows, here's how to write that in awk:

awk '("15:21:14" <= $1) && ($1 <= "15:51:14")' file

This will work as long as all of your timestamps follow the same format and use a full 2 digits for every number, padding single-digit hours, for example, with a leading zero. If you want to sort the result then pipe the output to sort:

awk '("15:21:14" <= $1) && ($1 <= "15:51:14")' file | sort