Shell Programming and Scripting

I have two files with the following content:

file1.txt looks like this (it always only have one single row):

Code:

ABC

file.txt looks like this (may have tons of rows):

Code:

123
456
789

I want to make a bash script that gives the following output:

Code:

ABC 123
ABC 456
ABC 789

So it takes the text in the first file and inserts that value in each of the rows in the second file. Can do this with some if/for statements but wonder if there is a quicker/shorter way of doing it? Have tried the "awk" and "paste" commands but just can't get what I want.

Cheers!
/Z

Hi,
with your sample:

Code:

awk -v A=$(<file1.txt) '$2=$1,$1=A' file.txt

Regards.

Thanks a lot. This works excellent when file.txt only has one column. Trying to add more columns there like this:

file.txt:

Code:

123 456 789
321 654 987
222 444 555

When I run your command (from #2) the result is:

Code:

ABC 123 789
ABC 321 987
ABC 222 555

So the second column in file.txt is dropped. I tried to do this instead:

Code:

awk -v A=$(<file1.txt) '$4=$3,$3=$2,$2=$1,$1=A' file.txt

That generates this error message:

Code:

awk: line 1: syntax error at or near ,

Have tried other ways to play around with the $-signs but just can't get it right. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
/Z

Show us sample input for your new file.txt, file1.txt, and the output you want to produce from those two sample input files.

What operating system are you using?

If post #3 did not produce an error then this should work, too.

Code:

awk -v A=$(<file1.txt) '{print A,$0}' file.txt

Thanks a lot MadeInGermany, that did the trick!

Don, for the record here are my two files and the desired output (which I get with #5):

file1.txt

Code:

ABC

file.txt

Code:

123 456 789
321 654 987
222 444 555

And when running the command described in #5 I get this desired output:

Code:

ABC 123 456 789
ABC 321 654 987
ABC 222 444 555

Now, only because I'm curious, let's say that file1.txt instead would contain multiple columns and I want to insert all of them before the columns in file.txt. What would the awk command look like? Example:

file1.txt:

Code:

ABC DEF GHI

file.txt:

Code:

123 456 789
321 654 987
222 444 555

Desired output:

Code:

ABC DEF GHI 123 456 789
ABC DEF GHI 321 654 987
ABC DEF GHI 222 444 555

The command given in #5 doesn't solve this one. I'm using Linux and this is done in a bash script.

Thanks for all help!
/Z

If you get an error message, prevent word splitting with quotes: ... A="$(<file1.txt)" ...