Changing the order of columns displayed with `ls`

Question

Is it possible to change the order of displayed columns when running ls -l on *nix (or dir on Windows)?

For example, I'd like to see the date modified, then the name, then other fields (or select only the ones I want, and their order.

How would this be done without merely using cut and trimming undesired fields (since that does not address the issue of re-ordering)?

Answer 1

I'd avoid parsing ls at all: use stat and sort:

stat --printf="%y\t%n\t%F\t%s\n" * | sort -t $'\t' -k 2

is a start.