04-26-2005
How do I specify tab as field separator for sort?
I'm trying to use sort on a file with tab-delimited fields. I can't figure out how to tell sort to use the tab character as the field separator. I'm trying this on both an HP Unix system and on OS X (using bash on both).
Things I've tried:
sort -t\t
sort -t"\t"
sort -t\"\t\"
I've tried other things out of desperation, but nothing has worked so far.
I've looked through all the messages on the forum but couldn't find an answer. I found one message where someone was using the third form above, but that didn't work for me.
TIA,
-Steve
10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting
1. Shell Programming and Scripting
I have some version of AWK that does not support regular expression field separators ( neither do I have nawk or gawk). How do I go about reading a line with the field separator as either the string "=#" or "+=".
My data looks like this:
abhishek=#nnnnn+#1234+#87
One option is to use... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Abhishek Ghose
2 Replies
2. Shell Programming and Scripting
I have files with tabs separating the fields but those fields values can have whitespace characters (basically a text string). I want to instruct join to not consider white spaces as separators but only tabs.
I have tried:
join -t "<Tab>" file1 file2
join -t "<tab>" file1 file2
join -t "\t"... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: FrancoisCN
7 Replies
3. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hi, all
I need to get fields in a line that are separated by commas, some of the fields are enclosed with double quotes, and they are supposed to be treated as a single field even if there are commas inside the quotes.
sample input:
for this line, 5 fields are supposed to be extracted, they... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: kevintse
8 Replies
4. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hi,
I have a flat file with fields separated by a X'1F'
i have to fetch 4th field from second line.
please help me how to achieve it.
I tried with below command and its not working.
cut -f4 -d`echo -e '\x1f'` filename.txt
I am using SunOS.
Thanks in advance. (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: rohan10k
2 Replies
5. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hi all,
How can i convert comma delimited .csv file to tab separate using sed command or script.
Thanks,
Krupa (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: krupasindhu18
4 Replies
6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
Hi !
input:
111|222|333|aaa|bbb|ccc
999|888|777|nnn|kkk
444|666|555|eee|ttt|ooo|ppp
With awk, I am trying to change the FS "|" to "; " only from the 4th field until the end (the number of fields vary between records).
In order to get:
111|222|333|aaa; bbb; ccc
999|888|777|nnn; kkk... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: beca123456
1 Replies
7. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hello, I need to replace newline with tab at certain lines of the file (every four lines is a record).
infile.fq:
@GAIIX-300
ATAGTCAAAT
+
_SZS^\\\cd
@GAIIX-300
CATACGACAT
+
hhghfdffhh
@GAIIX-300
GACGACGTAT
+
gggfcfoutfile:
@GAIIX-300 ATAGTCAAAT + _SZS^\\\cd
@GAIIX-300 ... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: yifangt
6 Replies
8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
Here's a sample of the data:
NAME BIRTHDAY SEX LOCATION AGE ID
Jim 05/11/1986 M Japan 27 86
Rei 08/25/1990 F Korea 24 33
Jane 02/24/1985 F India 29 78
I've been trying to sort files using the... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: maihani
8 Replies
9. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hello All,
I have a file, but I want to separate the file at a particular record with comma"," in the line
Input file
APPLE6SSAMSUNGS5PRICEPERPIECEDOLLAR600EACH010020340URX581949695US
to
Output file
APPLE6S,SAMSUNGS5,PRICEPERPIECE,DOLLAR600EACH,010020340URX581949695,US
This is for... (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: m6248m
11 Replies
10. Shell Programming and Scripting
Hi All,
I have the input as below:
cat input
032016002 2.891 97.109 16.605 27.172 24.017 32.207 0.233 0.021 39.810 0.077 0.026 19.644 13.882 0.131 11.646 0.102 11.449 76.265 23.735 16.991 83.009 8.840 91.160 0.020 99.980 52.102 47.898 44.004 55.996 39.963 18.625 0.121 1.126 40.189... (15 Replies)
Discussion started by: am24
15 Replies
sort(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide sort(3pm)
NAME
sort - perl pragma to control sort() behaviour
SYNOPSIS
use sort 'stable'; # guarantee stability
use sort '_quicksort'; # use a quicksort algorithm
use sort '_mergesort'; # use a mergesort algorithm
use sort 'defaults'; # revert to default behavior
no sort 'stable'; # stability not important
use sort '_qsort'; # alias for quicksort
my $current = sort::current(); # identify prevailing algorithm
DESCRIPTION
With the "sort" pragma you can control the behaviour of the builtin "sort()" function.
In Perl versions 5.6 and earlier the quicksort algorithm was used to implement "sort()", but in Perl 5.8 a mergesort algorithm was also
made available, mainly to guarantee worst case O(N log N) behaviour: the worst case of quicksort is O(N**2). In Perl 5.8 and later, quick-
sort defends against quadratic behaviour by shuffling large arrays before sorting.
A stable sort means that for records that compare equal, the original input ordering is preserved. Mergesort is stable, quicksort is not.
Stability will matter only if elements that compare equal can be distinguished in some other way. That means that simple numerical and
lexical sorts do not profit from stability, since equal elements are indistinguishable. However, with a comparison such as
{ substr($a, 0, 3) cmp substr($b, 0, 3) }
stability might matter because elements that compare equal on the first 3 characters may be distinguished based on subsequent characters.
In Perl 5.8 and later, quicksort can be stabilized, but doing so will add overhead, so it should only be done if it matters.
The best algorithm depends on many things. On average, mergesort does fewer comparisons than quicksort, so it may be better when compli-
cated comparison routines are used. Mergesort also takes advantage of pre-existing order, so it would be favored for using "sort()" to
merge several sorted arrays. On the other hand, quicksort is often faster for small arrays, and on arrays of a few distinct values,
repeated many times. You can force the choice of algorithm with this pragma, but this feels heavy-handed, so the subpragmas beginning with
a "_" may not persist beyond Perl 5.8. The default algorithm is mergesort, which will be stable even if you do not explicitly demand it.
But the stability of the default sort is a side-effect that could change in later versions. If stability is important, be sure to say so
with a
use sort 'stable';
The "no sort" pragma doesn't forbid what follows, it just leaves the choice open. Thus, after
no sort qw(_mergesort stable);
a mergesort, which happens to be stable, will be employed anyway. Note that
no sort "_quicksort";
no sort "_mergesort";
have exactly the same effect, leaving the choice of sort algorithm open.
CAVEATS
This pragma is not lexically scoped: its effect is global to the program it appears in. That means the following will probably not do what
you expect, because both pragmas take effect at compile time, before either "sort()" happens.
{ use sort "_quicksort";
print sort::current . "
";
@a = sort @b;
}
{ use sort "stable";
print sort::current . "
";
@c = sort @d;
}
# prints:
# quicksort stable
# quicksort stable
You can achieve the effect you probably wanted by using "eval()" to defer the pragmas until run time. Use the quoted argument form of
"eval()", not the BLOCK form, as in
eval { use sort "_quicksort" }; # WRONG
or the effect will still be at compile time. Reset to default options before selecting other subpragmas (in case somebody carelessly left
them on) and after sorting, as a courtesy to others.
{ eval 'use sort qw(defaults _quicksort)'; # force quicksort
eval 'no sort "stable"'; # stability not wanted
print sort::current . "
";
@a = sort @b;
eval 'use sort "defaults"'; # clean up, for others
}
{ eval 'use sort qw(defaults stable)'; # force stability
print sort::current . "
";
@c = sort @d;
eval 'use sort "defaults"'; # clean up, for others
}
# prints:
# quicksort
# stable
Scoping for this pragma may change in future versions.
perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 sort(3pm)