Hi all,

I'm a little stuck with a data file I've been collecting data in. The file contains one field of data running continuously down the file and I can't work out how to format the data into three columns.

This is a mock up of the file: Each r# is a random number and varies in length, this goes down the file for a long ways.

r1
r2
r3
r1
r2
r3
r1
r2
r3

r1         r2          r3
r1         r2          r3
r1         r2          r3

awk '{ORS = (NR %3 == 0 )? "\n" : "\t" } 1' file

awk '{printf (NR %3 == 0 )? $0"\n" : $0"\t" }' file

awk 'NR==1{s=$1;printf "%s",$1;next}
$1!=s{ printf "\t%s",$1}
$1==s{ print "";printf "%s",$1}' file

Thanks for your responses - that's help immensely.

/nistleloy