AWK scripting

Muki101 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-26-2008

I have a text file in which the text has been divided into paragraphs (two line breaks or tab marks a new paragraph) and I want to make a script which output would delete line breaks within the paragraph and the different paragraphs would be separated by two line breaks.

So, if my input file is:

Code:

     The first line.
Second line.

First line of the second paragraph.
Second line of the second paragraph.

I want the output to be something like:

Code:

The first line. Second line.

First line of the second paragraph. Second line of the second paragraph.

I have tried now for some hours to come up with something reasonable, but I seem to be heading the wrong way. I would be really pleased if someone gave their idea of how to solve the problem.

Thanks!

Tytalus · #2 (**permalink**) 11-26-2008

Code:

#  paste - - - <infile | sed G
     The first line.    Second line.

First line of the second paragraph.     Second line of the second paragraph.

Tytalus · #3 (**permalink**) 11-26-2008

or in nawk:

Code:

# nawk 'NR%3 {printf "%s ", $0;next}1(NR+1)%3{print"\n"}' infile
     The first line. Second line.

First line of the second paragraph. Second line of the second paragraph.

vgersh99 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-26-2008

And what if the paragraph is more than 2 lines long?

Code:

nawk 'BEGIN {FS=RS=""; ORS="\n\n\n"} $1=$1' infile

Muki101 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008

The output of Tytalus' code is pretty much what needed, but yes, I want it to work with paragraphs longer than 2 lines as well. But I really didn't understand the code itself very well to change it properly. Could someone explain it a bit or give ideas of how to change it?

vgersh99 · #6 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muki101

The output of Tytalus' code is pretty much what needed, but yes, I want it to work with paragraphs longer than 2 lines as well. But I really didn't understand the code itself very well to change it properly. Could someone explain it a bit or give ideas of how to change it?

Have you tried my suggestion?

Franklin52 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-29-2008

vgersh99, with your solution I get this:

Code:

$ nawk 'BEGIN {FS=RS=""; ORS="\n\n\n"} $1=$1' file
          T h e   f i r s t   l i n e .
 S e c o n d   l i n e .


F i r s t   l i n e   o f   t h e   s e c o n d   p a r a g r a p h .
 S e c o n d   l i n e   o f   t h e   s e c o n d   p a r a g r a p h .

Set the record separators to 2 newlines:

Code:

$ awk 'BEGIN {RS=ORS="\n\n"} $1=$1' file
The first line. Second line.

First line of the second paragraph. Second line of the second paragraph.

Regards

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