Hi, How can I match the first two fields of file2 against the first two fields of file1 and where they match combine the two lines. If the name
(example-Aidan Rielly) is in file1 but not in file2 then just write the info from file1 to the combined output file. If the name
(example-Silvia Spoelstra) is in file2, but not in file1, then do not write it to the combined output file.

file1
Firstname,Surename,City
Aidan,Rielly,Derry
John,Doe,London
Jack,Daniles,Glasgow
Ivor,Engine,Cardif

file2
Firstname,Surname,Country,ISO
Jack,Daniels,Scotland,GB
John,Doe,England,UK
Ivor,Engine,Wales,UK
Silvia,Spoelstra,Germany,DE

Combined file
Firstname,Surename,City,Country,ISO
Aidan,Rielly,Derry
John,Doe,London,England,UK
Jack,Daniles,Glasgow,Scotland,GB
Ivor,Engine,Cardif,Wales,UK

thanks in advance
Pete

This should gives the desired output:

Regards

Hi, thanks for the quick response. I get a syntax error when I try this.

$ awk -F, '
> BEGIN{print "Firstname,Surename,City,Country,ISO"}
> NR==FNR{a[$1$2]=$3","$4;next}
> a[$1$2]{print $0 ","a[$1$2];next}1
> ' file2 file1
awk: syntax error near line 4
awk: bailing out near line 4

any idea ?
Pete

A common problem is that there are different versions of awk. You probably have the original "One True" awk; see if you can find nawk or mawk or gawk on your system. Also on Sun and HP-UX look for the XPG4 version.

As era mentioned, if you get errrors use nawk or /usr/xpg4/bin/awk on Solaris.

Regards

works perfectly with nawk.

Thankyou very much
Pete