removing spaces betweent columns

sbasetty · #1 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

Hello Friends,

Can any one help me with this issue:

I would like to format a file:

say if I have rows like:

4512 , SMITH , I-28984 ,, 4324 , 4343
42312 , SMITH , I-2EE8984 ,, 432E4E4 , 4343

I would like to have the output diaplayed like :
4512 ,SMITH,I-28984,,4324, 4343
42312, SMITH, I-2EE8984 ,,432E4E4,4343

Thanks in advance for your help

Sam

sbasetty · #2 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

I have tried using

cat file_name.txt | tr -s " " ","

this is overwriting the blank spaces

S1234, A98 76 , A6789 , , , , A5677 , 3452
S9087 , A4562 , A1367 , A2678 , D7891

Displays:
S1234,A98,76,A6789,A5677,3452
S9087,A4562,A1367,A2678,D7891

It should be:

S1234,A98 76,A6789,,,,A5677,3452
S9087,A4562,A1367,A2678,D7891

Thanks

MizzGail · #3 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

If you search for "remove spaces" in this forum, there are a lot of answers out there. One should work for you.

radoulov · #4 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbasetty

[...]
I would like to format a file:

say if I have rows like:

4512 , SMITH , I-28984 ,, 4324 , 4343
42312 , SMITH , I-2EE8984 ,, 432E4E4 , 4343

I would like to have the output diaplayed like :
4512 ,SMITH,I-28984,,4324, 4343
42312, SMITH, I-2EE8984 ,,432E4E4,4343
[...]

Code:


awk '$1=$1' OFS= infile # use nawk on Solaris

sbasetty · #5 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

great it worked

Thanks a lot

sbasetty · #6 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

with this command it is cupressing all spaces,
I would like to have format something like this

if input has:

4545, SMITH MICHAEL ,584 Parkview , MD

It should display
4545,SMITH MICHAEL,584 Parkview,MD

Thank you

radoulov · #7 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbasetty

with this command it is cupressing all spaces,
I would like to have format something like this

if input has:

4545, SMITH MICHAEL ,584 Parkview , MD

It should display
4545,SMITH MICHAEL,584 Parkview,MD

Code:


awk '{gsub(/ *, */,",")}1' infile

sed 's/ *, */,/g' infile

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