UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi. I have a large data file. the first column has unique identifiers. I have approximately 5 of these files and they have varying number of columns in their rows. I need to extract ~300 of the rows in to a separate file. I'm not looking for something that would do all 5 files at once, but just something that would let me do each file separately would be great. A plus is if I can get these rows transposed in the output file. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Extract which rows?

Transpose what into what?

We can probably do what you want, once we know what that is.

Please give us a representative sample of your input, show us how to choose the lines you want to extract, and explain the transpositions that you want to appear in your output file(s).

I have a list of the unique identifiers I want to extract.

Then I was hoping to just transpose the entire dataset for the output file. Something similar to copy/transpose in excel. I do have a script that lets me do the transpose. So, I could do it separately, but of course if I could do it all at once it is more convenient.

Thanks

---------- Post updated at 10:14 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:10 AM ----------

large dataset:

unique_identifier_1 entry1 entry2 entry3.....entryn
unique_identifier_2 entry1 entry2 entry3.....entryn
unique_identifier_3 entry1 entry2 entry3.....entryn
unique_identifier_4 entry1 entry2 entry3.....entryn
unique_identifier_n entry1 entry2 entry3.....entryn

I have a list of the unique identifiers I would like:

List:
unique_identifier_1
unique_identifier_3

output_desired
unique_identiefier_1 unique_identifier_3
entry1 entry1
entry2 entry2
entry3 entry3
entryn entryn

If you already have a transpose that works for you, I'll let you use it. Extracting the identifiers you want is straightforward enough:

Code:

awk 'NR==FNR { A[$1]++ ; next } $1 in A' listfile datafile > subsetfile

Thanks so much.

I'm getting the following error when I try the awk command suggested:

-bash-4.1$ awk 'NR==FNR {a[$1}++;next} $1 in a' missing.txt local.txt > missing_subset.txt

Error Code:
awk: NR==FNR {A[$1}++ ; next} $1 in A
awk: ^ syntax error