Format Output with AWK command

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi -

I have a file with contents as below.

12.1 a.txt
12.1 b.txt
12.1 c.txt
13.2 a.txt
13.2 d.txt
14.3 f.txt
15.4 a.txt
15.4 b.txt
15.4 z.txt

I need to print the contents like this.

12.1 a.txt
<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>b.txt
<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>c.txt

13.2 a.txt
<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>d.txt

14.3 f.txt

15.4 a.txt
<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>b.txt
<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>z.txt

I think this can be done using awk. Any suggeestions please? Thanks in advance.

2

Something like this?

awk 's==$1{print "<&nbsp><&nbsp><&nbsp>" $2;next}{s=$1;print}' file

Regards

3

Thanks Franklin... It works.. But. in <&nbsp> place I need tab character. I tried. but with three or more lines and still I could not be successful.

4

If possible can you explain the code too! It is single line and almost it does my work perfectly. I wrote seven line code. [:(]

Thanks a lot.

5 
awk 's==$1{printf("\t\t\t%s\n", $2);next}{s=$1;print}' file

regards

6

Superb... It's great. I got it.... Thanks a lot your timely help Franklin

7

that works.. how does it know which line to skip?

8

Explanation:

s==$1{printf("\t\t\t%s\n", $2);next}

If the variable s is equal to the first field, print 3 tabs before the 2nd field and read the next line.

{s=$1;print}

If the variable s is not equal to the first field, we have a new line. Store the value of 1st field in s and print the whole line.

Regards