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Hi everyone, I'm a new member at the forum
I have a file like this: field 2 values are either 0 or negative. file test4:

Code:

100815    -20
118125    0
143616    0
154488    0
154488    0
154488    -6
196492    -5
196492    -9
196492    -7
27332    0
29397    0

I would like to print a line containing the maximum value in field 2 of all occurrences for each value in field 1. So the desired output should be:

Code:

100815    -20
118125    0
143616    0
154488    0
196492    -5
27332    0
29397    0

I am using awk to do this. But, there are two problems: first awk prints nothing when I try to get the maximum for the values with negative numbers but it has no problem when I try the same with positive numbers. This made me take the absolute values which I can later turn back to the original values. The second problem, I get the following output with my code:

Code:

100815    20
118125    0
143616    0
154488    6
196492    7
27332    0
29397    0

Although with absolute values I should get:

Code:

100815    20
118125    0
143616    0
154488    0
196492    5
27332    0
29397    0

My code is:
awk '{$2>0?$2=$2:$2=-$2} $2==0 {$2=0} {print}' test4 | awk 'NR==1 {a[$1]=$2} {a[$1]=$2 ; if ($2<a[$1]) a[$1]=$2; else a[$1]=a[$1];} END {for(i in a) print i"\t"a[i];}'

I am sure I'm missing something basic and this could probably be done in a much simpler way. Any help is appreciated
Best reagrds to all

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