Hi,

I got a below requirement from this forum, but the solution provided was not clear.

Below is the requirement

Code:

 
Input file
 
A 1 Z
A 1 ZZ
B 2 Y
B 2 AA
 
 
Required output
 
B Y|AA
A Z|ZZ

Solution provided wa

Code:

/usr/xpg4/bin/awk '{a[$1]=a[$1]?a[$1]"|"$3:$3}END{for (i in a){print i,a[i] }}' inputfile

The portion is in red was not understandable.

What I assumption is

Code:

{a[$1]=a[$1]?a[$1]"|"$3:$3}

if a[$1] the first row fields are same for next row then including pipeline and printing field $3 , but I am sure of : (colon)

I tried below to understand the code

Code:

/usr/xpg4/bin/awk -F" " '{a[$1]=a[$1]?a[$1]:$3}END{for (i in a){print i,a[i] }}' inputfile

but getting syntax error.