Shell Programming and Scripting

hey,

I want to combine every three lines in a file onto one i.e

old file:
82 67 32
62 58 39
29 47 58
27 34 50
27 35 69
38 58 70

new file:
82 67 32 62 58 39 29 47 58
27 34 50 27 25 69 38 58 70

At the moment I am using the following code:

gawk 'BEGIN {x=0} { if(x<3) {printf("%s",$0) x=x+1} if(x==3) {printf("\n") x=0} }' infile > outfile

but it is saying there is an error, the exact error message is;
gawk: cmd. line:1: BEGIN {x=0} {if(x<2){printf("%s",$0) x=x+1}if(x==2){printf("\n")x=0}}
gawk: cmd. line:1: ^ parse error

I am not very experienced with shell scripting and i was wondering if someone could help point out where I am going wrong!

Thanks!

Code:

gawk 'BEGIN {x=0} { if(x<3) {printf("%s",$0) ; x=x+1} ; if(x==3) {printf("\n") ; x=0} }'

Another way:

Code:

awk '{printf("%s%s", $0, (NR%3 ? "" : "\n"))}' infile > outfile

Jean-Pierre.

Thanks that worked ace

Another one:

Code:

awk 'ORS=NR%3?FS:RS' file

Use nawk or /usr/xpg4/bin/awk on Solaris.

radoulov: you are teh fabulous.

Hey,

Thanks for all your help, I have another quick question, it turns out that in a couple of the files some of the lines of data i want span 2 lines and some span 3, so I can't use the above argument. However they all start with either a 0 or 3 i.e

3 7895 36454 17363
2644 38264 384754
27374 48478 48585
3 49858 4858 40372
48487 548585 39385
0 278474 3847 3948749
34948 494854
3 4948754 384757 3635634
48475 387475 4847
38747 58595

and i would like this to become like the data written below, i.e. each time a 3 or 0 is seen, a new line is started.

3 7895 36454 17363 2644 38264 384754 27374 48478 48585
3 49858 4858 40372 48487 548585 39385
0 278474 3847 3948749 34948 494854
3 4948754 384757 3635634 48475 387475 4847 38747 58595

Thanks in advance for your help

sme

Vrom Germany, ja? (-:

This builds on Radoulov's suggestion but is nowhere near as elegant.

Code:

awk 'BEGIN { ORS=FS }
NR > 1 && $1 ~ /^(0|3)$/ { printf "\n"; }
{ print }
END { printf "\n" }' file