My goal is to have the three final grades ($2+$3+$4) outputted in descending order. Is there a way to incorporate sort into awk so that it sorts the grades in that manner before printing to the screen? Thanks. #!/bin/csh awk 'BEGIN { print "Name Exam1 Exam2 Exam 3 Total Grade" }' awk '{if ($2+$3+$4<50){grade="F"}else if ($2+$3+$4>49 && $2+$3+$4<65){grade="D"}else if ($2+$3+$4>64 && $2+$3+$4<80){grade="C"}else if ($2+$3+$4>79 && $2+$3+$4<90){grade="B"}else{grade="A"}}{print $0, " ", $2+$3+$4, " ", grade;}' grades

With just 3 columns to sort, an if-else series will do it. I chose to assign the 3 grades to variables a b c, as that might be a little easier to work with instead of $2 $3 $4, and this gives your code some isolation if the input format were to change on you.  Also, I prefer to total the 3 grades just once. And you do not have to keep checking for a range of grades, just an increasing lower limit. The printf command defines a "format" containing 6 variables. awk '\ BEGIN {print "Name     Exam1 Exam2 Exam3 Total Grade"} { a=$2 b=$3 c=$4 tot=a+b+c #-- sort the 3 exam grades -- if (a<b)    if (b<c)       {e1=a;e2=b;e3=c}    else       if (a<c)          {e1=a;e2=c;e3=b}       else          {e1=c;e2=a;e3=b} else    if (c<b)       {e1=c;e2=b;e3=a}    else       if (a<c)          {e1=b;e2=a;e3=c}       else          {e1=b;e2=c;e3=a} #---------------------------- if (tot<50) grade="F" else if (tot<65) grade="D" else if (tot<80) grade="C" else if (tot<90) grade="B" else             grade="A" printf "%-8s %4d  %4d  %4d  %4d    %s\n",$1,e3,e2,e1,tot,grade }' awkgrades Name     Exam1 Exam2 Exam3 Total Grade Alice      24    14    10    48    F Beth       36    30    20    86    B Cindy      44    33    22    99    A