My point exactly, thanks!
There are many good reasons to sort channels.
Periodically, I download the channels to CHIRP for editing (it's easier than on the HT) sorting** and printing, then upload the reorganized channels to the HT.
FWIW, I wrote the following (bash shell script) to sort CHIRP-exported .csv files by repeater frequency:
#!/bin/bash
#
# sortBaofeng - sorts chirp .csv file by frequency (field 3) and renumbers
# the lines (filed 1) for import.
#
# FWIW, by clicking on the column name, CHIRP sorts the rows by that column,
# but does not renumber the rows.
#
if [ "x$1" = "x" ]
then echo "Usage: $0 <chirp_csv_filename>"
echo " Sorts rows by frequency and renumbers them for CHIRP import."
echo " The sorted and renumbered lines are written to stdout."
exit 1
fi
IFN=$1
sort --field-separator=, -k3n,3 < $IFN | gawk -F\, '
BEGIN{OFS=","}
$1 != "Location"{$1 = ++n}
{print $0 }'
and use it thus:
1 - download radio channels to CHIRP
2 - edit to add/remove channels as necessary
3 - export to foo.csv
4 - run the script (sortByFreq) on the .csv file:
sortByFreq foo.csv > new.csv
5 - print new.csv
6 - import new.csv into CHIRP
7 - upload channels to radio
To modify the script to sort by another column, change the "3"s in the key (-kn3,3) to the number of the .csv column you want.
Steps 3 - 6 of this convoluted, external-to-chirp process would be obviated if CHIRP supported options to print, save and upload the channels after sorting.
Until then, I hope the above script & process might be useful to other CHIRP users.