[FIXED] How to sort a list of different filenames sorting a number in the filename with bash to find the "newest" filename in bash?

Issue

I run a command, getFiles, that outputs a newline delimited list filenames. Very similar to the output of ls -1. The filenames all end in a number representing a kind of timestamp. Larger numbers are more recent. The filenames follow no pattern. e.g. file1234, other44234, something34142, carrot123.

I need to find the filename with the largest number (numerically). In this example other44234.

After finding the filename I need to pass it as an argument into another command. i.e. doItToIt "$THE_FILE"

Solution

Another way:

$ sed -E 's/^([a-Z]+)([0-9]+)/\1 \2/' files.txt |
    sort -n -k2 |
    tail -n1 |
    tr -d ' '

other44234

Answered By - Gilles Quenot

Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (PHPFixing Volunteer)