I'm trying to remove duplicate data from an input file with unsorted data which is of size >50GB and write the unique records to a new file.

I'm trying and already tried out a variety of options posted in similar threads/forums. But no luck so far..

Any suggestions please ?

Thanks !!

The problems are:

Using associative arrays in awk can use lots of memory for a file that large, so it may not work well. If the key(s) are a small size you might get it to work. And awk is really good for this application.

Please post a few records from the big file and carefully define the columns or keys you use to detect duplicates.

The sort -u has less scaling difficulty than associative arrays in a shell. If the order of lines is important, number them first, then sort out the duplicates, then sort it back to original order and then remove numbering. The sort will save the first of any duplicates.

JAVA and C++ PPIs like RogueWave H++ have the same associative array functionality, more accurately called a hash map container. The file could be mmap64() mapped to the program so the hash map just has hash keys and offsets. The clean file could be recreated or even updated in place and truncated with fcntl(). The shell has noticably more overhead. Big jobs often need sharper tools.

Sample records from file:

14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480000127,A00127,A000127,143245730649,A00127, 
14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480000127,A00127,A000127,143245730649,A00127, 
14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480042302,A42302,A000127,143245800913,A00127, 
14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480041999,A41999,A000127,143245801337,A00127, 
14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480000163,A00163,A000163,143245730774,A00163,4133403 
14480042302,A42302,A000127,143245800913,A00127,

14480020180,A20180,A020180,143245765381,A00062,17284171796 
14480000127,A00127,A000127,143245730649,A00127, 
14480000163,A00163,A000163,143245730774,A00163,4133403 
14480041999,A41999,A000127,143245801337,A00127, 
14480042302,A42302,A000127,143245800913,A00127,

As is, the data is going to be very difficult to manage.

My suggestion would be to try transforming the data into something more suitable for sort -u, then transforming it back after.

Any DBAs around with some spare disk space?

Use a DB server. Create a single column table with a unique index on that column. Insert each line as a row into the table, ignoring duplicate entry failures. Export the data.

Might not be super fast, but it'll be faster than any script. And it's easy.

I don't think there is a super-fast way to handle 50G of data.

Taking advantage of a database index sounds as good a way as any, a proper DB is designed to duplicate-check data larger than memory.