SORT_RO(3valkey)

💖 SORT_RO 💖

okay bestie so this is SORT_RO from the Valkey Command Manual and it is literally the chill, read-only version of SORT and I'm obsessed 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sort_ro — gives you back the sorted elements of a list, a set, or a sorted set 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

SORT_RO key [BY pattern] [LIMIT offset count] [GET pattern [GET pattern
...]]  [ASC | DESC] [ALPHA]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so it's the read-only variant of the valkey-sort(7) SORT command. It's exactly like the original SORT except it flat-out refuses the STORE option, and because of that you can safely run it on read-only replicas. no cap. 🦋

here's the tea tho: since the original SORT has a STORE option, it's technically flagged as a writing command in the Valkey command table. which means read-only replicas in a Valkey Cluster will redirect it to the primary instance, even if the connection is in read-only mode (peep the valkey-readonly(7) READONLY command of Valkey Cluster if you wanna know more 👀).

so the SORT_RO variant exists specifically to let you get SORT behavior on read-only replicas without breaking compatibility on command flags. iconic behavior honestly. 👑

if you want more deets, go see the original SORT. iykyk. ✨

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✨ REPLY ✨

valkey-protocol(7) Array reply: a list of sorted elements. that's it, that's the reply 🍓

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✨ COMPLEXITY ✨

O(N+M*log(M)) where N is the number of elements in the list or set to sort, and M is the number of returned elements. and when the elements are not sorted, the complexity is O(N). math queen behavior fr fr 💀

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✨ ACL CATEGORIES ✨

@dangerous @list @read @set @slow @sortedset

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✨ HISTORY ✨

• Available since: 7.0.0 🌈

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

SORT_RO mylist BY weight_*->fieldname GET object_*->fieldname

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

copy(3valkey), del(3valkey), dump(3valkey), exists(3valkey), expire(3valkey), expireat(3valkey), expiretime(3valkey), keys(3valkey), migrate(3valkey), move(3valkey), object(3valkey), object-encoding(3valkey), object-freq(3valkey), object-help(3valkey), object-idletime(3valkey), object-refcount(3valkey), persist(3valkey), pexpire(3valkey), pexpireat(3valkey), pexpiretime(3valkey), pttl(3valkey), randomkey(3valkey), rename(3valkey), renamenx(3valkey), restore(3valkey), scan(3valkey), sort(3valkey), touch(3valkey), ttl(3valkey), type(3valkey), unlink(3valkey), wait(3valkey), waitaof(3valkey)

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ok that's the whole page bestie, go slay 💖

this lil cutie is from version 9.0.0, dated 2025-10-21, and it lives in the SORT_RO(3valkey) page 🫶 bye ily