Guys,
I have a script which hits the database and pulls the information that I need into files. Now I want to format these files to make them easy to read.
The sample format of the file will be like....

<Start_of_File>

Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

A1 as_p:xxxxxxxxx as_p:yyyyyyyyy as_p:zzzzzzzzz
A2 as_p:dskfjsjfsd as_p:sdfafjlaflkd


Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

B1 as_p:xxxxxxxxx as_p:yyyyyyyyy as_p:zzzzzzzzz
B2 as_p:dskfjsjfsd as_p:sdfafjlaflkd
B3 as_p:dsoiugtoi as_p:woiuiosgsd as_pwuewuu

Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

C1 as_p:xxxxxxxxx as_p:yyyyyyyyy as_p:zzzzzzzzz
C2 as_p:dskfjsjfsd as_p:sdfafjlaflkd
C3
C4
C5
.
.
.
<End_of_file>


The number of fields in the above records which have "as_p" in them are variable (actual content apart from Hearders).

I would like the file to be formated as....

<Start_of_File>

Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

A1
as_p:xxxxxxxxx
as_p:yyyyyyyyy
as_p:zzzzzzzzz
A2
as_p:dskfjsjfsd
as_p:sdfafjlaflkd


Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

B1
as_p:xxxxxxxxx
as_p:yyyyyyyyy
as_p:zzzzzzzzz
B2
as_p:dskfjsjfsd
as_p:sdfafjlaflkd
B3
as_p:dsoiugtoi
as_p:woiuiosgsd
as_pwuewuu

Header1 .....xsdfsfa...adfa......
Header2 ....afefas .aefaefsdf...
-------------------------------------------------

C1
as_p:xxxxxxxxx
as_p:yyyyyyyyy
as_p:zzzzzzzzz
C2
as_p:dskfjsjfsd
as_p:sdfafjlaflkd
C3
C4
C5
.
.
.
<End_of_file>


Basically I want to search the records which have 'as_p' in them and transpose all the fields in that record in one column. The rest of the records which don't have 'as_p' in them should be left untouched.

Thanks in advance.

Maybe...
awk '/as_p/ { gsub(" ", "\n")}{print} '

It says syntax error.
I think with gsub you are trying to search and replace globally all matches of " " with new line. That too for records only with 'as_p'.

But since the records will be tab delimited....does it need to be like
So, it would be something like..
Its stil throwing error.

And since the last field will be delimited by "\n", the gsub might not work for the last field.

If I use the following code....its stripping out the headers....and prints only the records with 'as_p'.

Do you think the below logic would work?

awk ' { if 'as_p' is there record print
{for (field=1; field<=NF; ++field) {printf ("\n" $field);}}
else
print line
} ' FileName


Sorry I'm new to awk.

try using slashes eg gsub(/your pattern/, "" )

Works for me...

The above code works but if the data is tab delimited then it needs to be changed so very slightly.

True enough, but still, the code I posted shouldn't result in a syntax error.