UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Dear all,
I would like to merge around 600 files, they all have 4 colomns: the first three columns are the same in each file and want to add the 4th colomn from each file. like the example below. any help please, thank you
I tried paste but it didnt work
file 1
ID1 ID2 ID3 rank
10 100 1000 0.16
11 200 2000 0.27
12 300 3000 0.33
13 400 4000 0.46
15 500 5000 0.58

file 2
ID1 ID2 ID3 rank
10 100 1000 0.62
11 200 2000 0.88
12 300 3000 0.66
13 400 4000 0.72
15 500 5000 0.16

file 1+2+3...600

ID1 ID2 ID3 rank rank
10 100 1000 0.16 0.62
11 200 2000 0.27 0.88
12 300 3000 0.33 0.66
13 400 4000 0.46 0.72
15 500 5000 0.58 0.16

What OS and shell are you using?

sorry, i am using unix environment (putty) under windows

Try:

Code:

awk 'NR==FNR{A[$1,$2,$3]=$4; next}{print $0,A[$1,$2,$3]}' file2 file1

greats it work fine thanks so much
just one more question how to adjust for many files (600) together because this scripts works only for 2 files
thanks again

Do all files have the same number of rows and are the first three fields in the same order in every file?

yes. only the 4th column have different values in each file.
thanks