removing duplicate blank lines


 
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# 1  
Old 07-31-2008
removing duplicate blank lines

Hi,

how to remove the blank lines from the file only If we have more than one blank line.

thanks
rameez
# 2  
Old 07-31-2008
Code:
awk '/^$/ { if (blank++) next; print }1' file

# 3  
Old 07-31-2008
It woks fine.

Can you please explain the following part in the command
'{ if (blank++) next; print }1'
# 4  
Old 07-31-2008
The variable blank will be zero initially, but non-zero (i.e. true) on subsequent runs.

The 1 is an awk idiom which matches and prints lines not handled by previous conditions.

Actually you should change it to '{ blank=0; print }' in order for the script to work correctly on files where there are multiple sequences of adjacent empty lines. Sorry for missing that.
# 5  
Old 07-31-2008
Thanks...thats great!
# 6  
Old 07-31-2008
Another way with awk yet :
Code:
awk 'NR==1 || NF || prvNF {print} {prvNF=NF}'

Jean-Pierre.
# 7  
Old 07-31-2008
Sorry, it's still not right. Should test before I post. Apologies.

Code:
awk '/^$/{ if (! blank++) print; next } { blank=0; print }'file

(What a grand way to increase my post count ...)
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