Sorting entire matrix according to one column in matlab

Question

I have the matrix as follows

a =

 1     3
 2     5
 3     2
 4     8
 5     9

I want to sort the second column in the a matri

Answer 1

Try this:

sortrows(a,2)

This should sort according to the second column.

Answer 2

or use:

[val idx]=sort(a(:,2));
ans = [a(idx,1) val]