Bibliography Alphabetizer
Paste your references — one per line, or separated by blank lines — and get them back in alphabetical order, ready to paste into your document. Entries are sorted letter by letter from the first word, which for an author-date or MLA list is the first author’s surname; you can reverse the order or switch off the ignoring of A, An and The. Free, no sign-up, and nothing leaves your browser.
Sorting Rules by Style
APA 7th Edition
Alphabetize by the first author's last name. For works with the same first author, order by the second author's last name. For identical author groups, order by year (oldest first). Ignore “A,” “An,” and “The” at the beginning of titles.
MLA 9th Edition
Alphabetize by the first element of each works cited entry (usually author last name). Ignore articles at the start of titles when no author is given. Number entries by last name, not first.
Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago 18 prefers word-by-word alphabetizing, though letter-by-letter is also accepted. A comma interrupts the alphabetizing, so the surname is settled first. Ignore “The,” “A,” and “An” when they are the first word of a title. This tool sorts letter by letter, as APA and MLA do; the order differs only for multi-word surnames such as De Stefa and Descartes, so check those.
How to Use the Bibliography Alphabetizer
- Paste your entries. Put one reference per line, or separate references with blank lines. If any blank line is present, each blank-line block is one entry, so a reference wrapped over several lines stays together.
- Choose the order and the article setting. A → Z is the default; Z → A reverses it. Leave Ignore “A”, “An”, “The” at start ticked unless you want those words to count.
- Press Sort Entries. The sorted list appears in a box below, with a blank line between entries.
- Copy the list. Use Copy to clipboard, paste it into your document, and apply the hanging indent there or with the Hanging Indent Formatter.
How the Sort Works
The tool does not read authors, years or titles. It compares whole entries as text, from the first character, ignoring capital letters, accents, spaces and punctuation, which is the letter-by-letter method APA 7 and MLA 9 use. A comma ends the part being compared, so the surname is settled first and nothing precedes something: Brown, J. comes before Browning, A. For the same surname the order follows the initials or first name, then whatever comes next. That gives the results the main styles ask for in the usual cases:
| Situation | Result of the sort | What the styles say |
|---|---|---|
| Different first authors | Johnson before Smith | alphabetical by the first author’s surname |
| Same author, different years | (2018) before (2020) | APA: earlier date first |
| One author, then the same author with a co-author | Smith, J. (2018) before Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2019) | APA: single-author entries before multi-author ones |
| Entry starting with A, An or The | sorted under the next word | APA, MLA and Chicago all ignore a leading article in a title |
| Entry starting with a number | as if the number were spelled out: 20 tips sorts under T, 1984 under N (nineteen eighty-four) | APA and MLA alphabetize a leading number as if it were spelled out |
Results from the tool’s own comparison. Like APA 7, the tool lists a work with no date, (n.d.), before dated ones by the same author.
Worked Example
The tool’s own sample has two entries: Smith, J. (2024). Title of article… and Johnson, A. (2023). Another great article…. Sorting A → Z puts the Johnson entry first and the Smith entry second; Z → A reverses them. With The Economist. (2020)… in the list as well, the entry is placed among the E’s, because the leading The is ignored, and it sits among the T’s when you untick the option.
What You Still Need to Check
- Spaces and prefixes. The sort ignores spaces and punctuation, so MacArthur comes before Mac Donald and Descartes before De Stefa. Chicago 18 prefers word-by-word order, which would reverse those pairs, so check multi-word surnames such as Mac, Mc, van and de if you follow Chicago.
- Numerals. A figure at the very start of an entry is sorted as if it were spelled out, in English, so 20 tips sorts under T. A year such as 1984 is read as nineteen eighty-four; other figures are read as ordinary numbers, and figures later in an entry compare as numbers.
- Same author, same year. APA orders these by title and then adds a letter to the year (2020a, 2020b). The tool compares the text as typed, so add the letters first and they stay in that order.
- MLA repeats. For several works by one author MLA replaces the name with three hyphens after the first. The tool does not add them.
- Numbered styles. Vancouver, IEEE and AMA order references by first citation, not alphabetically. Do not sort those lists. Use the Numbered Citation Order Checker instead.
Which Tool Do You Need?
- Put references in A–Z order: this page.
- Any other list of lines (names, words) in any order, or by length: Sort Lines, which has no rule for A, An and The.
- Indent every line after the first: Hanging Indent Formatter.
- Check that the order and the entries are right: the APA Citation Checker, MLA Citation Checker or Chicago Citation Checker flag entries out of order.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I alphabetize my bibliography?
- Paste the entries into the box, one per line or separated by blank lines, and press Sort Entries. They are put in order from the first word of each entry, which is normally the first author’s surname, and you can copy the result straight into your document.
- Does APA require an alphabetized reference list?
- Yes. An APA 7 reference list is ordered alphabetically by the first author’s surname, with the same author’s works in order of date, earliest first. MLA and Chicago bibliographies are alphabetical as well; the numbered styles are not.
- What if two entries start with the same author?
- The sort carries on comparing the text, so the second author’s initials and then the year decide the order. In practice a single-author entry comes before one with co-authors, and earlier years come before later ones. APA states the same rules.
- Are A, An and The ignored?
- By default, yes, at the start of an entry, which is how a work with no author is alphabetized by its title. Untick the option to sort the word as it stands. Articles in the middle of a title are never affected.
- Can I sort numbered references like Vancouver or IEEE?
- No — those styles number references in the order they are first cited, so alphabetical order would break the numbers in your text. This tool is for author-date styles and MLA.
- Does the tool keep my hanging indent?
- No. The tool sorts and separates entries but does not add or change indentation, so apply the hanging indent after sorting, in your word processor or with the Hanging Indent Formatter.
- Is my list uploaded anywhere?
- No. The sorting runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to a server or stored.