Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community


Shell Programming and Scripting

Paste files of varying lengths

Login to Discuss or Reply to this Discussion in Our Community

 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Paste files of varying lengths
# 1  
Old 02-27-2014
Paste files of varying lengths
I have three files of varying lengths and different number of columns. How can I paste all three with all columns aligned?

File1
----
Code:
123

File2
----
Code:
234
345
678

File3
----
Code:
456
789

Output should look like:
Code:
123	234	456
	345	789
	678

Using paste messes up the formatting and gives output as:

Code:
123  234  456
345  789
678

Please advise. Thanks

-Vin
Last edited by Don Cragun; 02-27-2014 at 02:26 PM.. Reason: Add CODE tags for all sample input and output segments.
# 2  
Old 02-27-2014
I advise you to use code tags, because both of your samples appear identical without them. Also, you probably made a mistake and typed 678 in place of 789 at some point.

Regards,
Alister
# 3  
Old 02-27-2014
Thanks for the tip. Fixed.
# 4  
Old 02-27-2014
What operating system are you using? Please show us the exact command that you used?

When I try the command:
Code:
paste File1 File2 File3

with the data you showed us for those three files, I get the output:
Code:
123	234	456
	345	789
	678

or (with \t replacing tab characters):
Code:
123\t234\t456
\t345\t789
\t678\t

which seems to match what you said you wanted.
# 5  
Old 03-12-2014
The OS is RHEL. The output is as you have listed from command line. The column alignment is messed up when paste is used in a script.
# 6  
Old 03-12-2014
What you are saying doesn't make sense. We must be missing some context.

Please post your script and show us where the output from paste has messed up column alignment.
# 7  
Old 03-12-2014
What version of red hat? what shell
Appears to work fine in bash/zsh for me.
Code:
$ paste 1 2 3
123     234     456
        345     789
        678

Last edited by Don Cragun; 03-12-2014 at 03:51 PM.. Reason: Fix CODE tags.
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

How to paste multiple files in parallel?

Hi all, I am trying to paste thousands of files together into a matrix. Each file has only 1 column and all the files have the same number of rows (~27k rows). I tried paste * > output as well as some other for loops but the output only contains the columns from the 1st and last files. The... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: notimenocall
8 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Merge two files with different lengths

Hi there, I have two very long files like: file1: two fields 1 123 1 125 1 234 2 123 2 234 2 300 2 312 3 10 3 215 4 56 ... (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: ClaraW
11 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

paste mutiple files in a loop

file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt desired output is each file is in the same directory, hasthe same number of columns but different rows. i want to be able to paste them into one file. thanks! (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: johnkim0806
5 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Merging data from 2 files of different lengths?

Hi all, Sorry if someone has answered something like this already, but I have a problem. I am not brilliant with "awk" but think it should be the command to use to get what I am after. I have 2 files: job-file (several hundred lines like): 1018003,LONG MU WAN,1113S 1018004,LONG MU... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: sgb2301
4 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Paste the files

Dear All, I have thousands of files (consists of one column each) and i need to paste all the columns in a single file as follows: I have files - file1, file2, file3, .......file2000. I need to paste all the files in a single file of separate columns as shown below: file1 file2 file3 ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Fredrick
3 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

paste more than 12 files together

Hi, 1. How can I get around the issue with pasting more than 12 files together? 2. paste file1 file2 > file3........how can I do this with awk?? Thanks! (14 Replies)
Discussion started by: bobo
14 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

paste several files

Hi everybody: I tried to paste several files which have the same pattern name file like this: down_s1.dat, down_s2.dat, down_s3.dat, down_s4.dat ... down_s10.dat So I have tried to do it as: paste down_s.dat > final.dat But it does not work correctly. Any suggestion. Thanks in... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: tonet
1 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

paste 2 files ( it is possible???)

Hello all, I have two files: file1: data1 data2 data3 data4 data5 data6 data7 data8 data9 file2: reference I need to paste both files with the following output: data1 data2 data3 reference data4 data5 data6 reference data7 data8 data9 reference I tried using the paste... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: mig28mx
3 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Need a Help with paste 2 files since the output is not what i want

Need a Help with paste 2 files since the output is not what i want ie: i have 2 files pwd /home/pavargaz/alejo/scan01/nokia/2006/abril/bavaria/chu0 $ cat filechu chu0 dia Cantidad 01 257 02 262 03 260 04 58 $pwd ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: alexcol
3 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

deleting a varying amount of lines from a list of files

I did search the posts for info on this and while there were some in the ballpark, none addressed this specifically. (also I tried to post this once it said I was logged out, so hopefully I'm not sending a duplicate here). I have a set of files (250 +/-) where I need to delete the first "$x"... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: benair
4 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question