bash - joining lines in a file


 
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# 1  
Old 03-01-2011
bash - joining lines in a file

I’m writing a bash shell script and I want to join lines together where two variables on each line are the same ie.

Code:
12345variablestuff43212morevariablestuff
12345variablestuff43212morevariablestuff
34657variablestuff78945morevariablestuff
34657variablestuff78945morevariablestuff
98789variablestuff48975morevariablestuff

I want the file to end up looking like this:

Code:
12345variablestuff43212morevariablestuff12345variablestuff43212morevariablestuff
34657variablestuff78945morevariablestuff34657variablestuff78945morevariablestuff
98789variablestuff48975morevariablestuff

There can be any number of matching rows (16 max at the moment) as there seems to be a lot of duplication but I only need to join the first 4 rows as they appear on the file. (I have at the moment deleted the duplicates, but it seems that the duplication is actually necessary in rare cases Smilie)
Thanks so much in advance for any help with this!

Last edited by radoulov; 03-01-2011 at 07:16 AM.. Reason: Code tags, please!
# 2  
Old 03-01-2011
With sed..
Code:
sed '/^[0-9]\+/{N;s/\(^[0-9]\+.*\)\n\(\1.*\)/\1\2/}' inputfile > outfile

# 3  
Old 03-01-2011
Thanks for you response.

This hasn't done the trick for me though. The file that I'm working on is fixed length and contains both text and numerics throughout. The variables that I am matching on have 7 digits followed by 1/2 characters, if there is no second character this is a space.

Many thanks again in advance!
# 4  
Old 03-01-2011
I was guessing that the file you posted is not your real file you work upon. Have modified the command to match only the numerics at the beginning between the lines 1 and 2,3 and 4 etc..If this does not work post your sample data of the real file.
Code:
sed '/^[0-9]\+/{N;s/\(^[0-9]\+\)\(.*\)\n\(\1.*\)/\1\2\3/}'  inputfile > outfile

This User Gave Thanks to michaelrozar17 For This Post:
# 5  
Old 03-01-2011
That's done the trick!!

Thanks a million!!

---------- Post updated at 08:43 AM ---------- Previous update was at 07:16 AM ----------

Sorry to come back to you on this again.

It seems that not all rows have joined appropriately. Here's the input:

Code:
 
1234567DR$MYSELF              $ANDI                $9876543H $          12346.87$     497.52$     123.56$XY$ $12
1234567DR$MYSELF              $ANDI                $9876543H $              0.00$       0.00$       0.00$TR$ $10

# 6  
Old 03-01-2011
Code:
awk '{printf $0}' file_name > out_file


Last edited by Franklin52; 03-02-2011 at 03:20 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags
# 7  
Old 03-01-2011
Hi, thanks for the response, but there are two variables that should match before joining the lines.

The first and the fourth columns have to match.

These will change after one line/two lines/three lines etc... throughout.

Last edited by Cultcha; 03-01-2011 at 10:49 AM..
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