Combine multiple lines in file based on specific field

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,

I have an issue to combine multiple lines of a file. I have records as below.
Fields are delimited by TAB. Each lines are ending with a new line char (\n)

Input
--------

ABC 123456 abcde 987
890456 7890 xyz
ght gtuv 
ABC 5tyin 1234 789
ghty kuio
ABC ghty jind 1234 
678 ght

I have to combine these lines based on first field. Whenever ABC comes a first field it should a new line. Delimiter should be retained as TAB.

My output should be
--------------------

ABC 123456 abcde 987 890456 7890 xyz ght gtuv
ABC 5tyin 1234 789 ghty kuio
ABC ghty jind 1234 678 ght

Please help me to resolve this.

Thanks,
Ratheesh

2

Try:

perl -lp0e 's/^ABC/\x00ABC/gm;s/\n/\t/g;s/\x0/\n/g' input > output
3 
awk 'END { 
  if (r) 
    print r 
    }
/^ABC/ && r { 
  print r
  r = x 
  }
{ 
  r = r ? r $0 : $0 
  }' infile
4 
paste -sd'\t' inputfile|sed 's/        ABC/\
ABC/g'

Use the Tab key between "/" and "ABC".

5

Another one:

sed -e :a -e '$!N;/\nABC/!s/\n//;ta' -e 'P;D' infile
6

Thanks all for your quick reply. But these codes are not working as I expected.
All are writing the input records to output as it is.
Solution from elixir_sinari prefixed a TAB for each record except 1st.

ABC 123456 abcde 987
       890456 7890 xyz
       ght gtuv 
       ABC 5tyin 1234 789
       ghty kuio
       ABC ghty jind 1234 
       678 ght

Please help me.

7

If you have GNU awk:

$ awk -v RS="ABC" '{ $1="ABC " $1 } NF>1' data

ABC 123456 abcde 987 890456 7890 xyz ght gtuv
ABC 5tyin 1234 789 ghty kuio
ABC ghty jind 1234 678 ght

$
1 Like
8

And if you don't:

awk '{$1=$1}; /^ABC/ { print P; P=$0; next }; { P=P " " $0 }; END {   print P }' OFS="\t" data

ABC     123456  abcde   987 890456      7890    xyz ght gtuv
ABC     5tyin   1234    789 ghty        kuio
ABC     ghty    jind    1234 678        ght

$
9

Thanks Corona688. This gives the desired output for the given input, it insert a blank line as first record.
Also this is not working if ABC comes as field other than first. I need to consider ABC as delimiter only if it comes as first field of the line.
For example

ABC 123  xyz ABC 678
ftc 345
ABC rty gty
567 778

I need output as

ABC 123  xyz ABC 678 ftc 345
ABC rty gty 567 778

but I get the output as

ABC 123  xyz 
ABC 678 ftc 345
ABC rty gty 567 778

Please reply.:b:

---------- Post updated at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:30 PM ----------

Sorry Corona688. It worked successfully. I made a mistake in the data.
The exception is output is started with blank line.

Thanks a lot.

RAR:b:

1 Like