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the easiest way to break down this column?

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# 1  
Old 08-27-2010
the easiest way to break down this column?
i have a one column txt file, which has a large amount of data which look like this

a
11
3
b
45
77
r
7
9
blah
blah
blah

what i am trying to do here is for every 3 lines, i want to move the 2nd and 3rd line to the first line, so it will look like this

a 11 3
b 45 77
r 7 9
blah blah blah

what is the easiest way to make this happen?
# 2  
Old 08-27-2010
Code:
awk -vORS=" " '!(NR%3){printf $0"\n";next}1' file

# 3  
Old 08-27-2010
hmmm, i got the following error

awk: syntax error near line 1
awk: bailing out near line 1
# 4  
Old 08-27-2010
What system are you using?
# 5  
Old 08-27-2010
solaris, and i just tested on ubuntu and it works! Smilie

if it is possible can you elaborate a little bit what your awk script does?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bartus11
What system are you using?
# 6  
Old 08-27-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by fedora
solaris, and i just tested on ubuntu and it works! Smilie

if it is possible can you elaborate a little bit what your awk script does?
-vORS=" " - sets record (line) separator from newline to space
!(NR%3){printf $0"\n";next} - every 3 lines print current line followed by newline
1 - print current line
This User Gave Thanks to bartus11 For This Post:
fedora
# 7  
Old 08-27-2010
Hi.

An easy way is to use paste:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate easy collapse with paste.

# Utility functions: print-as-echo, print-line-with-visual-space.
pe() { for i;do printf "%s" "$i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version "=o" bash paste

pl " Data file data1:"
cat data1

pl " Results of paste:"
paste - - - < data1

exit 0

producing:
Code:
$ ./s1
OS, ker|rel, machine: SunOS, 5.10, i86pc
GNU bash 3.00.16
paste - ( /usr/bin/paste Jan 22 2005 )

-----
 Data file data1:
a
11
3
b
45
77
r
7
9
blah
blah
blah

-----
 Results of paste:
a       11      3
b       45      77
r       7       9
blah    blah    blah

Best wishes ... cheers, drl
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