Always output 6 columns regardless of search results

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

If I am searching for AA then then BB in a loop, how do I make the output always contain 6 columns of comma separated data even when there may only be 4 search matches?

AA11
AA12
AA13
AA14
BB11
BB12
BB13
BB14
BB15
BB16

Final output:

AA11,AA12,AA13,AA14,,,
BB11,BB12,BB13,BB14,BB15,BB16

Thanks for any help!

2

Just to clarify, you definitely want 6 columns, not 7.
Your output for the AA?? implies 7 columns...
Your output for the BB?? is 6...

3

A loop in what? Shell script, awk program, etc?

4

I need 6 columns regardless of the search results using a UNIX Bash Shell script.

---------- Post updated at 09:46 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:46 AM ----------

Thanks in advance!

5

Try this:

awk     '                       {TMP=substr($1,1,2)}
         NR>1 && LAST!=TMP      {printf "%s", PR
                                 while (CNT++ < 6) printf ","
                                 printf "\n"
                                 PR=DEL=""; CNT=0}
                                {PR=PR DEL $0; DEL=","; CNT++; LAST=TMP}
         END {print PR}
        ' file
AA11,AA12,AA13,AA14,,
BB11,BB12,BB13,BB14,BB15,BB16

What about 7 elements?

1 Like
6

Sorry about that, I made a typo, I only needed 6. Let me give this a try! Thanks :slight_smile:

7 
awk 'BEGIN {OFS = ","; n = 1}
  NR == 1 {T = $0;
  gsub(/[0-9]/, X);
  A[n++] = T;
  P = $0;
  next}
  {T = $0;
  gsub(/[0-9]/, X);
  if(P == $0 && n <=6)
    {A[n++] = T}
  else if (P != $0)
    {print A[1], A[2], A[3], A[4], A[5], A[6];
    n = 1;
    split("", A);
    A[n++] = T;
    P = $0}}
  END {print A[1], A[2], A[3], A[4], A[5], A[6];}' file
8

Thanks RudiC, the awk command worked just fine!

---------- Post updated at 11:08 AM ---------- Previous update was at 10:51 AM ----------

RudCi,

I did find a little glitch, if the last line of data is under 6, then the command does not put the require commas into the output to come up with six columns.

9

Use

printf "%s", PR
while (CNT++ < 6) printf ","
printf "\n"

in the END section as well...

10

Another approach (a bit too long for one line)

awk '{n=substr($1,1,2); c=$0} n!=p{if(p){$0=s; s=x; $f=$f; print} p=n} {s=s c FS} END{$0=s; $f=$f; print}' f=6 OFS=, file
11

I am sorry, I cannot figure out how this is supposed to be added into the original command

---------- Post updated at 04:27 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:25 PM ----------

I cannot make this work, it error-ed out.

12

What error did you get? What is your OS and version?

1 Like
13

Instead of END {print PR} use

END {printf "%s", PR 
     while (CNT++ < 6) printf "," 
     printf "\n"}
1 Like
14

Thanks, that worked!

---------- Post updated at 07:49 AM ---------- Previous update was at 07:41 AM ----------

I am on a SunOS 5.10 at a Bash prompt. The awk man page does not tell me the version of awk.

15

On Solaris use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk rather than awk