Re: [PATCH] ref-filter.c: sort formatted dates by byte value

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 8, 2024, 03:11 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqzfwbps43.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1655.git.1707357439586.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"Victoria Dye via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

> Leaving the default (unformatted) date sorting unchanged, sorting by the
> formatted date string adds some flexibility to 'for-each-ref' by allowing
> for behavior like "sort by year, then by refname within each year" or "sort
> by time of day".

Hmph, what a strange use case, but understandable.

>     I came across a use case for 'git for-each-ref' at $DAYJOB in which I'd
>     want to sort by a portion of a formatted 'creatordate' (e.g., only the
>     time of day, sans date). When I tried to run something like 'git
>     for-each-ref --sort=creatordate:format:%H:%M:%S',

Hmph, this indeed is interesting ;-)

I wonder if there are other "sort by numeric but the thing could be stringified by the end-user" atoms offered by for-each-ref machinery. IOW, is the timestamp the only thing that needs this fix?

Thanks.