UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hi. How to handle this when I have more than one input file

--- Post updated at 11:10 AM ---

HI .. How to handle this case when I have multiple input files

If you want 12 output files you need to treat them separately, and a loop is appropriate.

Code:

for file in input1.txt input2.txt ...
do
  cat -n "$file" | sort -k2,2 -k4,4 -k1,1 | cut -f2- > "$file".sorted
done

Hi .. Output file is only one and input files are more than one. I need to sort them and merge into one file. When the keys in files matching, the sorting is not working fine . It is sorting based on other columns also which are not part of key. My question is if I add number in each file at the end to solve this, How will it work as in each file number will be added at the end.

--- Post updated at 04:03 PM ---

Hi .. I am able to apply this logic in one input file. In my scenario the input files are more than one . All of them to be sorted and generate one output file. Please help how to achieve this .
I have tried the option of combining the files in one Temporary file and in that temporary file I am applying this logic mentioned by you to generate final output.

Is there any other way.

cat -n starts from 1 with each file, so awk with its NR is better:

Code:

awk '{print (NR "\t" $0)}' input1.txt input2.txt ... | sort -k2,2 -k4,4 -k1,1 | cut -f2-

Note: the awk inserts a tab-separated field #1, so the sort fields are +1 compared to the fields in the input files. At the end the field #1 is cut off again.

Can I apply this logic to more than one input file at a time??

--- Post updated at 05:07 PM ---

It is working now ., Thank you for help.