UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi I have a text file with 2 values and I am trying to assign each value to a variable and then write those to text files.

So if the textfile is data.txt with 2 values x and y

I want to assign mean=x, and stdev=y and then write these out in text files alongwith the id ($id has already been set earlier on in a larger script).

say

Code:

 echo $mean $id > mean.$id.text
     echo $stdev $id > stdev.$id.text

later on I want to go through and concatenate all the mean values for all id's into 1 file and similarly create another one for stdev.
so far I tried this (after looking through various threads)---

Code:

        mean=$( awk '{ print $1}' data.txt)
	echo $mean $id  > mean.txt

doesn't work, says illegal variable name.



thanks for any help.

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags for all code and data

$( ) is bourne shell syntax. I think tcsh at least has backticks: ` `

I tried the backticks--

mean=`awk '{ print $1}' data.txt`
echo $mean $id > mean.txt

but now it says
mean=0.067762: Command not found.
mean: Undefined variable.

also tried
set mean=`awk '{ print $1}' $roi.$sid.$task.1D`
echo $mean > mean.$sid.$task.1D

but get the same error.

thanks.

I think you need to put spaces there for tcsh.

Code:

var = something

okay thanks. Now the first line works

set mean = `awk '{ print $1}' $roi.$sid.$task.1D`

but this one does not-
echo $mean $id > mean.$id.txt
it just prints the id in the output file.

May I ask why you're stuck using tcsh?

Because I already have a tcsh file that does what I need and outputs a text file with the mean and stdev numbers. Now all I am trying to do is add a line or two at the very end so when I concatenate all subjects' files, I can keep the values and the subject id in good order.

thanks.