View Git branches sorted by date
Have you ever wanted to see a list of all your local Git branches sorted by date? There's a very easy way to do so, using the git branch command with the --sort option.
In order to sort branches by date, you usually want to use the committerdate field, which represents the date of the commit on the branch. In order to sort branches in descending order (most recent first), you can use the - sign before the field name.
Putting it all together, using git branch --sort=-committerdate will display a list of all local branches sorted by the date of their last commit. You can use the arrow keys to navigate through the list and press Q to exit.
# Syntax: git branch --sort=-committerdate git branch --sort=-committerdate # master # patch-1 # patch-2
If, instead, you want to sort branches in ascending order (oldest first), you can drop the - sign, and use git branch --sort=committerdate.
# Syntax: git branch --sort=committerdate git branch --sort=committerdate # patch-2 # patch-1 # master
Depending on your environment and team, you might want to use authordate instead of committerdate. These fields often have identical values, but they can differ in certain situations, such as when a commit is cherry-picked or rebased. The authordate field represents the date of the original commit, while the committerdate field represents the date of the commit in the current branch.
