UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I might require some help here.

I have a file, ITEMS with the below data :

Code:

A1 20 A2 A3
B1 40 B2 B3
C1 70 C2 C3
D1 90 D2 D3

I need the output as :

Code:

A2 A3 20
B2 B3 40
C2 C3 70
D2 D3 90

i.e, I need the sequence of columns to be changed and only 3 fields to be displayed (Not all 4).

Please help me out. Thanks.

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Code:

awk '{ print $3,$4,$2 }' file

where file contains your data

Would there be any commands without using awk and just using the basic cut, paste,sort etc commands?

Just out of curiosity, why not use awk? Seems odd to discard a great tool like that. Of course, if this is a homework assignment where the teacher has limited what you're allowed to use, that's different... we've all been there, I'm sure.

You can use sed:

Code:

 sed 's/\(.\{2\}\) \(.\{2\}\) \(.\{2\}\) \(.\{2\}\)/\3 \4 \2/' file

..or just the shell

Code:

# cat file
A1 20 A2 A3
B1 40 B2 B3
C1 70 C2 C3
D1 90 D2 D3
# while read a b c d;do echo $c $d $b;done < file
A2 A3 20
B2 B3 40
C2 C3 70
D2 D3 90