[BASH] Sorting by date and creating generic functions

Hello again. I'm currently using the following technique to sort a file called details.csv Code: sort -d -o details.csv -t , -k 3,3 details.csv Within the csv file I only have 3 fields. A name, number and date of birth. Example: Code: fred,999,03/04/2005 jane,888,01/01/1993 james,3456,12/01/1987 john,1234,11/08/1955 When I call the above sort, it is sorting the third field but it's doing so by the day (the format is dd/mm/yyyy). I'd love it to sort correctly by the entire date, or if it's too much hassle I'm happy to just sort by year. I've tried playing around with the sort function, but this is the best way I can come up with without breaking everything. Hopefully one of you knowledgeable chaps can point me in the right direction. Secondly, I have 2 functions that do the same job, but with different variables. Is there a way to just use one of these functions and return the "chopped" variable? Code: chop_name() {                 length=`echo ${#name}`                 if [ $length -gt 6 ]         then                 name=`echo ${name:0:6}`                 name=$name".."                 cut="true"         fi                } chop_number() {                 length=`echo ${#number}`                 if [ $length -gt 6 ]         then                 number=`echo ${number:0:6}`                 number=$number".." #place dots at the end to show number's been chopped                 cut="true"         fi        } Thanks again :)

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