Order table by row alphabeticaly

Question

I have a table like this:

\documentclass[10pt,spanish]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{selinput}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\SelectInputMappings{%
  aacute={á},
  ntilde={ñ},
  Euro={€}
}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage [left=1.5cm, right=1.5cm, top=1.5cm, bottom=1.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{longtable}

\begin{document}

\begin{longtable}{| p{.15\textwidth} | p{.85\textwidth} |} 
\hline
Spanish     & English                                       \\ \hline
ser         & to be (essential/permanent quality)           \\ \hline
haber       & to have (to do something, auxiliary verb)     \\ \hline
estar       & to be (health, location, state)               \\ \hline
tener       & to have                                       \\ \hline
hacer       & to do, make                                   \\ \hline
poder       & to be able, can                               \\ \hline
decir       & to say, tell                                  \\ \hline
ir          & to go                                         \\ \hline
ver         & to see                                        \\ \hline
dar         & to give                                       \\ \hline
saber       & to know (information)                         \\ \hline
querer      & to want, love                                 \\ \hline
llegar      & to arrive, come, reach                        \\ \hline
pasar       & to pass, to spend (time), to happen           \\ \hline
deber       & to owe, must, should, ought to                \\ \hline
poner       & to put, place, set                            \\ \hline
parecer     & to seem, appear                               \\ \hline
quedar      & to stay, remain                               \\ \hline
creer       & to believe                                    \\ \hline
hablar      & to speak                                      \\ \hline
llevar      & to carry, bring                               \\ \hline
dejar       & to leave, abandon, to let, allow              \\ \hline
seguir      & to follow, continue                           \\ \hline
encontrar   & to find, encounter                            \\ \hline
llamar      & to call, to name                              \\ \hline
% About 1500 rows more
\end{longtable}

\end{document}

I am alway add in this table new words. I would like to order automatically rows by the value of the Spanishcolumn on alphabetical order (A-Z).

I really like how it was made here. I tried to do the same for my table but I failed.

Could you help me please?

Answer 1

A proof of concept, using an idea from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/356777/4427

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{xparse}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\NewDocumentCommand{\spanishverb}{mm}
 {
  \seq_gput_right:Nn \g_alex_spanishverbs_seq { \__alex_spanishverbs_entry:nn {#1}{#2} }
 }

\seq_new:N \g_alex_spanishverbs_seq
\tl_new:N  \g__alex_spanishverbs_tablebody_tl

\NewDocumentCommand{\sortverbs}{}
 {
  \cs_gset_eq:NN \__alex_spanishverbs_entry:nn \use_i:nn
  \seq_gsort:Nn \g_alex_spanishverbs_seq
   {
    \alex_spanishverbs_if_before:ffTF { ##1 } { ##2 }
     { \sort_return_same: }
     { \sort_return_swapped: }
   }
  \cs_gset_eq:NN \__alex_spanishverbs_entry:nn \alex_spanishverbs_print:nn
  \tl_gset:Nx \g__alex_spanishverbs_tablebody_tl
   {
    \seq_use:Nn \g_alex_spanishverbs_seq { \\ \hline }
   }
 }
\NewExpandableDocumentCommand{\printverbs}{}
 {
  \tl_use:N \g__alex_spanishverbs_tablebody_tl
 }

\prg_new_conditional:Nnn \alex_spanishverbs_if_before:nn { p,T,F,TF }
 {% I hope the LaTeX3 police won't catch me
  \int_compare:nTF { \pdftex_strcmp:D { #1 } { #2 } < 0 }
   {
    \prg_return_true:
   }
   {
    \prg_return_false:
   }
 }
\cs_generate_variant:Nn \alex_spanishverbs_if_before:nnTF { ff }

\cs_new:Nn \alex_spanishverbs_print:nn { #1 & #2 }
\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

\spanishverb{ser}{to be (essential/permanent quality)}
\spanishverb{haber}{to have (to do something, auxiliary verb)}
\spanishverb{estar}{to be (health, location, state)}
\spanishverb{tener}{to have}
\spanishverb{hacer}{to do, make}
\spanishverb{poder}{to be able, can}
\spanishverb{decir}{to say, tell}
\spanishverb{ir}{to go}
\spanishverb{ver}{to see}
\spanishverb{dar}{to give}
\spanishverb{saber}{to know (information)}
\spanishverb{querer}{to want, love}
\spanishverb{llegar}{to arrive, come, reach}
\spanishverb{pasar}{to pass, to spend (time), to happen}
\spanishverb{deber}{to owe, must, should, ought to}
\spanishverb{poner}{to put, place, set}
\spanishverb{parecer}{to seem, appear}
\spanishverb{quedar}{to stay, remain}
\spanishverb{creer}{to believe}
\spanishverb{hablar}{to speak}
\spanishverb{llevar}{to carry, bring}
\spanishverb{dejar}{to leave, abandon, to let, allow}
\spanishverb{seguir}{to follow, continue}
\spanishverb{encontrar}{to find, encounter}
\spanishverb{llamar}{to call, to name}
\sortverbs

\begin{longtable}{
 |
 p{\dimexpr.15\textwidth-2\tabcolsep-1.5\arrayrulewidth}
 |
 p{\dimexpr.85\textwidth-2\tabcolsep-1.5\arrayrulewidth}
 |
} 
\hline
Spanish & English \\ \hline
\printverbs \\ \hline
\end{longtable}

\end{document}

Answer 2

R/Sweave/knitr approach:

1) The table content is an easy to make SPUK.csv file, with this format:

Spanish    ; English                                       
ser        ; to be (essential/permanent quality)           
haber      ; to have (to do something, auxiliary verb)     
estar      ; to be (health, location, state) 
...              

2) Then is fairly simple in R read it as a data frame, sort it, and print the data frame as a LaTeX table with xtable library.

For a long table with headers on every page, you will need play with some options (not so easy, I admit) but here a R code that does this:

library(xtable)
options(xtable.booktabs = T)
SPUK <- read.table("SPUK.csv", header=T, sep=";")
add.to.row <- list(pos = list(0), command =NULL )
command <- paste0("\\midrule\n\\endhead\n",
"\\bottomrule\n",
"{\\footnotesize Continued on next page}\n",
"\\endfoot\n",
"\\endlastfoot\n")
add.to.row$command <- command

print(xtable(SPUK[order(SPUK$Spanish),] , 
      caption = "Spanish verbs"), 
      caption.placement = "top",
      add.to.row = add.to.row,
      tabular.environment = "longtable", 
      include.colnames = T,
      floating = F, include.rownames = F) 

If the result is 100% satisfactory, and you do not need make any any modification, using knitr you do not need to enter in R each time, then copy & paste the result in the LaTeX document. It will be enough insert the above code in the LateX code only one time:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{longtable,booktabs,lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-3]
<<xxx, results="asis", echo=F>>=
library(xtable)
options(xtable.booktabs = T)
SPUK <- read.table("SPUK.csv", header=T, sep=";")
add.to.row <- list(pos = list(0), command =NULL )
command <- paste0("\\midrule\n\\endhead\n",
"\\bottomrule\n",
"{\\footnotesize Continued on next page}\n",
"\\endfoot\n",
"\\endlastfoot\n")
add.to.row$command <- command
print(xtable(SPUK[order(SPUK$Spanish),] , 
      caption = "Spanish verbs"), 
      caption.placement = "top",
      add.to.row = add.to.row,
      tabular.environment = "longtable", 
      include.colnames = T,
      floating = F, include.rownames = F)   
@

\lipsum[4-5]
\end{document} 

If you do not know how compile this with knitr, save it as filename.Rnw, open it with Rstudio and push the Compile PDF buttom. Result:

Answer 3

I suggest that you read two papers by the (unfortunately) late Kees van der Laan, viz "Sorting in BLUe" (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/64ed/fe77b0760edc9bc8169087665795efd5505e.pdf) and "Sorting within TeX" (https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb14-3/tb40laan-sort.pdf). Both contain rich ideas and lots of macros for sorting numbers, words or whatever using TeX, but be warned that their contents is rather technical and needs very, very careful reading !