title: sort a file based on length of chars in the first column/row
body: <p>I need to sort a file based on the number of chars in the first column.</p>
  
  <p>I have no idea on how to go about this. I'm using Linux, so sed/awk/sort are all available.</p>
  
  <pre>
  .abs is bla bla 12 
  .abc is bla se 23 bla
  .fe is bla bla bla
  .jpg is pic extension
  .se is for swedish domains
  </pre>
  
  <p>What I want is to sort these lines, based on the length of the first column in each line.
  Some of the lines start with 4 characters, some start with 3, or 2. I want the result to be something like:</p>
  
  <pre>
  .fe is bla bla bla 
  .se is for swedish domains 
  .abs is bla bla 12 
  .abc is bla se 23 bla 
  .jpg is pic extension 
  </pre>
  
  <p>Is this even possible? </p>