UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Please help to sort columns in this file:

a b d f c e
1 4 10 16 7 13
2 5 11 17 8 14
3 6 12 18 9 15

I need to sort COLUMNS (so sort command doesn't work) like this:

a b c d e f
1 4 7 10 13 16
2 5 8 11 14 17
3 6 9 12 15 18

I know sed can do it but don't know how...

pretty sure sed isn't well suited to this... I'd write a shell script, but I'm sure there must be a simpler one-liner with awk.

This is certainly not a one-liner, but...

Code:

awk ' {
  for( I = 1; I <= NF; I++ )
    system( "cut -d \" \" -f " I " " FILENAME " > " $I "_tmp" )
  exit
}
' file1
paste *_tmp
rm *_tmp
 
 
Output:
a       b       c       d       e       f
1       4       7       10      13      16
2       5       8       11      14      17
3       6       9       12      15      18

doesn't work ((

The statement "doesn't work" isn't exactly helpful - expecially to someone who is trying to help you.

I took your input, and the output is as you requested.

Explain why it doesn't work.

When I write this script as a file and run it ( $awk sort.awk file1 > file2) it writes: awk: syntax error at source line 1 source file sort_col.awk
context is
awk >>> ' <<<
awk: bailing out at source line 8

If I run it from the command line without writing the script into a file it quits after the line ' file1 and doesn't do
paste *_tmp
rm *_tmp
and all tmp files are the same...
Maybe I need to run it different way?

---------- Post updated at 05:39 PM ---------- Previous update was at 05:22 PM ----------

or maybe it's different on mac?

I have no idea about the Mac. You didn't mention that you were using a Mac, and it's not something I would think to ask!

This is a shell script not an awk script.

file1 is intended to mean the file you want sorted. Replace file1 with the name of the file with the data you want sorted.

Or, put the code into a file called sort.sh

Code:

awk ' {
  for( I = 1; I <= NF; I++ )
    system( "cut -d \" \" -f " I " " FILENAME " > " $I "_tmp" )
  exit
}
' $1
paste *_tmp
rm *_tmp

(note I changed file1 to $1)

Run it as sort.sh filename

(where filename is the name of the file to sort)

But as I didn't know what OS you were running, this might not work. It would have been helpful to know that from the beginning. (when you post to UNIX forums, we make some assumptions about your OS, and as awk, paste, cut, etc. are quite generic, we assume you have them).