I have a two files, file A and B, which have 5 columns, and each 5 columns are made up of random numbers, that means, numbers are all different.

They have same amount of lines (Both 1000 lines)

I hope to do a operation

1) 2nd column of file A - 2nd column of file B
2) 5th column of file A - 3rd column of file B

and print them out with file name 'results' with

First column: 1st column of file A
Second column: result of 1)
Third column: result of 2)

I've been tried to use cat and awk, but not works. Need any help here~

Please post a representative sample of the input and the corresponding expected output.

Without any samples, try this:

awk '{a1=$1;a2=$2;a5=$5;getline<"fileB";print a1,(a2-$2),(a5-$3)}' fileA

Using paste & awk:-

paste file_A file_B | awk ' { printf "%d %d %d\n", $1, ($2-$7), ($5-$8); } '

Hi.

Similar to awk, Gary Perlman's |stat dm:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s1	Demonstrate column content arithmetic, |stat dm.
# See: http://hcibib.org/perlman/stat/index.html

# Utility functions: print-as-echo, print-line-with-visual-space, debug.
# export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
pe() { for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
db() { ( printf " db, ";for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done;printf "\n" ) >&2 ; }
db() { : ; }
C=$HOME/bin/context && [ -f $C ] && $C awk dm

pl " Input data files data[12]:"
head data[12]

pl " Combined input files:"
paste data[12] > data3
head data3

pl " Results, bipinajith awk:"
awk ' { printf "%d %d %d\n", $1, ($2-$7), ($5-$8); } ' data3

pl " Results, dm"
dm x1 x2-x7 x5-x8 < data3

exit 0

% ./s1

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.8 (lenny) 
bash GNU bash 3.2.39
awk GNU Awk 3.1.5
dm - ( local: ~/executable/dm, 2009-11-09 )

-----
 Input data files data[12]:
==> data1 <==
 7 	14 	10 	19 	15 
10 	 1 	14 	13 	20 
 5 	13 	11 	19 	 9 

==> data2 <==
10 	 5 	15 	16 	20 
 8 	 4 	14 	 4 	20 
 1 	12 	 7 	17 	 6 

-----
 Combined input files:
 7 	14 	10 	19 	15 	10 	 5 	15 	16 	20 
10 	 1 	14 	13 	20 	 8 	 4 	14 	 4 	20 
 5 	13 	11 	19 	 9 	 1 	12 	 7 	17 	 6 

-----
 Results, bipinajith awk:
7 9 0
10 -3 6
5 1 2

-----
 Results, dm:
7	9	0
10	-3	6
5	1	2

Slight variation:

awk '{split($0,A); getline<f; print A[1], A[2]-$2, A[5]-$3}' f=fileB fileA