sorting - How can I sort alphanumeric strings in Unix?

Question

I have a list of table names, which are out of order. How can I get them in the correct logical order?

$ cat list.txt

TAB1
TAB13
TAB11
TAB19
TAB2
TAB3
TAB16
TAB17
TAB18
TAB9
TAB10
TAB8
TAB12
TAB20

$ cat list.txt | sort -n

TAB1
TAB10
TAB11
TAB12
TAB13
TAB16
TAB17
TAB18
TAB19
TAB2
TAB20
TAB3
TAB8
TAB9

Expected order:

TAB1
TAB2
TAB3
TAB8
TAB9
TAB10
TAB11
TAB12
TAB13
TAB16
TAB17
TAB18
TAB19
TAB20

Any vim short-cuts will also do, I do not necessarily need a separate utility for this.

Answer 1

You can always perform sort with argument -V to sort alphanumeric string..

$ sort -V inputfile > outputfile

$ cat inputfile  
TAB1  
TAB13  
TAB11  
TAB19  
TAB2  
TAB3  
TAB16  
TAB17  
TAB18  
TAB9  
TAB10  
TAB8  
TAB12  
TAB20  

$ cat outputfile  
TAB1  
TAB2  
TAB3  
TAB8  
TAB9  
TAB10  
TAB11  
TAB12  
TAB13  
TAB16  
TAB17  
TAB18  
TAB19  
TAB20