UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s2	Demonstrate colwise, extract, operate, paste.
# See: http://www.cuni.cz/~obo/textutils

# Utility functions: print-as-echo, print-line-with-visual-space, debug.
# export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
LC_ALL=C ; LANG=C ; export LC_ALL LANG
pe() { for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
db() { ( printf " db, ";for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done;printf "\n" ) >&2 ; }
db() { : ; }
pe 
what $(which colwise)
C=$HOME/bin/context && [ -f $C ] && $C colwise perl sort

FILE=${1-data1}
cp original $FILE

pl " Input data file $FILE:"
cat $FILE

pl " Expected output:"
cat expected-output.txt

# Function to obtain number of fields.
fields() {
  awk -F"," '{print NF;exit}' $1
}

n=$( fields $FILE )
pl " Results for $n fields in $FILE:"
for c in $( seq 1 $n )
do
  colwise --delim="," $c sort < $FILE > scratch
  cp scratch $FILE
done
cat $FILE
rm -f scratch

exit 0

$ ./s2

colwise	Cut a column, run command, paste results.

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian 5.0.8 (lenny, workstation) 
bash GNU bash 3.2.39
colwise - ( local: RepRev 1.2, ~/bin/colwise, 2014-03-20 )
perl 5.10.0
sort (GNU coreutils) 6.10

-----
 Input data file data1:
1,5,7
3,4,9
2,6,8

-----
 Expected output:
1,4,7
2,5,8
3,6,9

-----
 Results for 3 fields in data1:
1,4,7
2,5,8
3,6,9