The Sort Keys operator sorts maps by their keys (based on their string value). This operator does not do anything to arrays or scalars (so you can easily recursively apply it to all maps). Sort is particularly useful for diffing two different yaml documents: ```bash yq eval -i 'sortKeys(..)' file1.yml yq eval -i 'sortKeys(..)' file2.yml diff file1.yml file2.yml ``` ## Sort keys of map Given a sample.yml file of: ```yaml c: frog a: blah b: bing ``` then ```bash yq eval 'sortKeys(.)' sample.yml ``` will output ```yaml a: blah b: bing c: frog ``` ## Sort keys recursively Note the array elements are left unsorted, but maps inside arrays are sorted Given a sample.yml file of: ```yaml bParent: c: dog array: - 3 - 1 - 2 aParent: z: donkey x: - c: yum b: delish - b: ew a: apple ``` then ```bash yq eval 'sortKeys(..)' sample.yml ``` will output ```yaml aParent: x: - b: delish c: yum - a: apple b: ew z: donkey bParent: array: - 3 - 1 - 2 c: dog ```