Sort Big File Help

[John Filben]

I am new to Python but have used many other (mostly dead) languages in the past.  I want to be able to process *.txt and *.csv files.  I can now read that and then change them as needed – mostly just take a column and do some if-then to create a new variable.  My problem is sorting these files:
1.)    How do I sort file1.txt by position and write out file1_sorted.txt; for example, if all the records are 100 bytes long and there is a three digit id in the position 0-2; here would be some sample data:
a.       001JohnFilben……
b.      002Joe  Smith…..
2.)    How do I sort file1.csv by column name; for example, if all the records have three column headings, “id”, “first_name”, “last_name”;  here would be some sample data:
a.       Id, first_name,last_name
b.      001,John,Filben
c.       002,Joe, Smith
3.)    What about if I have millions of records and I am processing on a laptop with a large external drive – basically, are there space considerations? What are the work arounds.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 John Filben
Cell Phone - 773.401.2822
Email - johnfilben at yahoo.com 


      
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