CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbash
Lampros
Lampros

Reputation: 392

Split a column in to two columns bash Linux

Input

1st row 
2nd row
3rd row

4th row
5th row
6th row

Desired Output

1st row 4th row
2nd row 5th row
3rd row 6th row

I tried column it doesn't seem to work. I am trying to do it with out a bash script if possible. Thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 982

Answers (2)

Jetchisel
Jetchisel

Reputation: 7791

I am trying to do it with out a bash script if possible. Thanks in advance!

The pr utility can do that without the need for scripting, not saying that scripting is not needed but there exist a tool just for that purpose.

pr -t2 file.txt

To use a space to separate the columns.

pr -t2 -s' ' file.txt

See the man pages for pr for more info.

Upvotes: 0

Raman Sailopal
Raman Sailopal

Reputation: 12877

With awk:

awk 'BEGIN { cnt=1 } /^$/ { cnt++;next } { if (cnt==1) { map1[cnt1++]=$0 } else { map2[cnt2++]=$0 } } END { for (i in map1) { print map1[i]" "map2[i]}}' file

Explanation:

awk 'BEGIN { 
             cnt=1                                            # Initialise a column counter to 1
           } 
      /^$/ { 
             cnt++;                                            # When there is a blank line, increment the cnt variable
             next                                              # Skip to the next line
           } 
           { 
             if (cnt==1) {    
               map1[cnt1++]=$0                                     # If cnt is equal to 1, set an array map1, with an index as an incrementing counter (cnt1) and the value as the actual data on the line ($0)
             } 
             else { 
               map2[cnt2++]=$0                                     # If cnt not equal to 1, follow the same logic as before but use array map2 instead
             } 
           } 
       END { 
             for (i in map1) { 
               print map1[i]" "map2[i]                          # Loop through map1, printing the entries as well as the corresponding index entries for map2
             };
           }' file

Upvotes: 2

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