Hello,
I have a single column of data that I would like to cut/print (with awk or ...) into multiple columns at every empty row (or common character).
Input:
5.99123
5.94693
7.21383

5.95202
0.907935
5.99149

6.08427
0.975774
6.077

Output:
5.99123 5.95202 6.08427
5.94693 0.907935 0.975774
7.21383 5.99149 6.077

Any help is appreciated.
Al

don't really know what 'common character' is, but.....

nawk -v RS='' '$1=$1' myInputFile

Might try this:

awk 'BEGIN{MAX=0}
/^$/{NR=0; next;}
NR > MAX{MAX=NR}
{A[NR]=A[NR] " " $1}
END{for (I=1;I<=MAX;I++) {print substr(A[I],2)}}'

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, the nawk example prints each row (between empty rows) as a new column, not as a single column (of rows between empty rows). The awk example is not working for me either, it prints blank rows no numbers -- please detail, row by row, what is meant to happen.

ah, I see what you mean now....

nawk -f ag.awk myInputFile

ag.awk:

BEGIN {
  RS=""
}
{
  for(i=1; i<=NF; i++)
    a[i] = (i in a) ? a[i] OFS $i : $i
}
END {
  for(i=1; i in a; i++)
     print a[i]
}

Perhaps use paste...

$ cat file1
5.99123
5.94693
7.21383

5.95202
0.907935
5.99149

6.08427
0.975774
6.077

$ paste -s -d '   \n' file1
5.99123 5.94693 7.21383
5.95202 0.907935 5.99149
6.08427 0.975774 6.077
$

Hi.

With commands:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate split file on context=empty line, paste into columns.

set -o nounset
echo

debug=":"
debug="echo"

## Use local command version for the commands in this demonstration.

echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version bash csplit paste

echo

FILE=${1-data1}

# Remove debris from previous runs.
rm -f xx*

echo
csplit -k -z $FILE '/^[         ]*$/'+1 '{*}'

echo
ls xx*

echo
echo " Output:"
paste -d" " xx*

exit 0

% ./s1

(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
GNU bash 2.05b.0
csplit (coreutils) 5.2.1
paste (coreutils) 5.2.1


25
26
23

xx00  xx01  xx02

 Output:
5.99123 5.95202 6.08427
5.94693 0.907935 0.975774
7.21383 5.99149 6.077