Read in lines in a text file, sort, then overwrite file

I am trying to write a go function that will read in lines in a text file, sort them (alphabetize), and overwrite them back to the file. Right now, I am able to essentially emulate cat, but I can't seem to be able to manipulate the contents of the elements in read_line.

func sort() {

	ff, _ := os.OpenFile(file, os.O_RDWR, 0666)
	f := bufio.NewReader(ff)
	for {
		read_line, _ := f.ReadString('\n')
		fmt.Print(read_line)
		if read_line == "" {
			break
		}
	}
	ff.Close()
}

when i use ReadString, how can i store each line into a slice (or is there a better way to store them so i can manipulate them)? Then I would use the sort package in a manner similar to this:

sorted := sort.Strings(lines) 

then, to write to the file, i am using something similar to the following, although i have not included it because i have not yet gotten "sort" to work:

io.WriteString(ff, (lines + "\n"))

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

For example,

package main

import (
	"bufio"
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"sort"
)

func readLines(file string) (lines []string, err os.Error) {
	f, err := os.Open(file)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	defer f.Close()
	r := bufio.NewReader(f)
	for {
		const delim = '\n'
		line, err := r.ReadString(delim)
		if err == nil || len(line) > 0 {
			if err != nil {
				line += string(delim)
			}
			lines = append(lines, line)
		}
		if err != nil {
			if err == os.EOF {
				break
			}
			return nil, err
		}
	}
	return lines, nil
}

func writeLines(file string, lines []string) (err os.Error) {
	f, err := os.Create(file)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer f.Close()
	w := bufio.NewWriter(f)
	defer w.Flush()
	for _, line := range lines {
		_, err := w.WriteString(line)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func main() {
	file := `lines.txt`
	lines, err := readLines(file)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println(err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
	sort.Strings(lines)
	err = writeLines(file, lines)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println(err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
}

This is a pretty simple way of doing it.

import (
	"bytes"
	"io/ioutil"
	"sort"
)

// allow [][]byte to implement the sort.Interface interface
type lexicographically [][]byte

// bytes.Compare compares the byte slices lexicographically (alphabetically)
func (l lexicographically) Less(i, j int) bool { return bytes.Compare(l[i], l[j]) < 0 }
func (l lexicographically) Len() int           { return len(l) }
func (l lexicographically) Swap(i, j int)      { l[i], l[j] = l[j], l[i] }

func SortFile(name string) error {
	content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(name)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	lines := bytes.Split(content, []byte{'\n'})
	sort.Sort(lexicographically(lines))

	content = bytes.Join(lines, []byte{'\n'})
	return ioutil.WriteFile(name, content, 0644)
}

since you are about to sort the lines, you pretty much need to read the entire file. you can either slurp the file with io/ioutil.ReadAll or you can just write a small slurp function. once you have the lines of the file, sorting them can be done with a call to sort.Strings. i'll add a perhaps overly verbose version which hopefully illustrates how it can be done. i also recomment reading this excellent explanation on how go's sort package works: Go's sort package

package main
import (
"os"
"bufio"
"fmt"
"sort"
)
// slurp file into slice of lines/strings
func slurp(f string) (lines []string, e os.Error) {
var fd *os.File
var line string
var bufRd *bufio.Reader
var keepReading bool = true
fd, e = os.Open(f)
if e != nil {
return nil, e
}
defer fd.Close()
bufRd = bufio.NewReader(fd)
for keepReading {
line, e = bufRd.ReadString('\n')
switch e {
case nil:
lines = append(lines, line)
case os.EOF:
lines = append(lines, line)
keepReading = false
default:
return lines, e
}
}
return lines, nil
}
// test stuff out..
func main() {
if len(os.Args) > 1 {
lines, e := slurp(os.Args[1])
if e != nil {
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr,"%s\n", e)
os.Exit(1)
}
fmt.Println("\n----- unsorted -----\n")
for _, line := range lines {
fmt.Printf("%s", line)
}
fmt.Println("\n----- sorted -----\n")
sort.Strings(lines)
for _, line := range lines {
fmt.Printf("%s", line)
}
}
}

note that the sort is in-place, so it does not return anything

Just wondering how convenient is using Unix's sort for this purpose. I know it's not possible to have this code working in many deployment scenarios, but I see it worth it to mention as an option:

package main
import (
"os"
"os/exec"
)
func main() {
file := "file.txt"
command := []string{"sort", file, "-o", file}
cmd := exec.Command(command[0], command[1:]...)
cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
}

Thoughts?