UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

paste one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve > tmp
paste tmp thirteen > final_file

awk '{l[FNR]=l[FNR] $0 OFS} FNR>max {max=FNR} END {for (i=1;i<=max;i++){print l[i]}}' file*

try it with nawk

nawk '{l[FNR]=l[FNR] $0 OFS} FNR>max {max=FNR} END {for (i=1;i<=max;i++){print l[i]}}' file*

results:
1 2 3
3 4

I need the data:

1   2   3
    3   4

awk '
        FNR==1 { col++ }
        FNR>max { max=FNR }
        { l[FNR,col]=$0 }
        END {
                for (i=1;i<=max;i++) {
                        for (j=1;j<=col;j++) {
                                printf "%-10s",l[i,j]
                        }
                        print ""
                }
        }
' file*