Meaning of 'sort in' and 'sort by'

[Zulfiya]

Test No. incompl/advan-32 "Letter Writing (4)", question 7

When we eventually arrived at the hotel, we had to ......... our luggage at reception.

(a) sort out
(b) sort of
(c) sort in
(d) sort by

Test No. incompl/advan-32 "Letter Writing (4)", answer 7

When we eventually arrived at the hotel, we had to sort out our luggage at reception.

Correct answer: (a) sort out

Hello, explain, please meaning of 'sort in' and 'sort by'.
Thank you
Zulfiya

[Alan]

Hi Zulfiya,

Let me give you some examples:

'I want you to sort these in order of size - put the biggest first, the second biggest next and so on'. Very often 'in' after 'sort' can mean as in that example, arranging things following a pattern or sequence.

'I want you to sort these books by their category - novels on this shelf, autobigraphies on that shelf and handbooks here'. In this sense 'by' means according to.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a policeman

[Zulfiya]

Hello Alan. Thank you
Zulfiya