Paste files of varying lengths

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I have three files of varying lengths and different number of columns. How can I paste all three with all columns aligned?

File1
----

123

File2
----

234
345
678

File3
----

456
789

Output should look like:

123	234	456
	345	789
	678

Using paste messes up the formatting and gives output as:

123  234  456
345  789
678

Please advise. Thanks

-Vin

2

I advise you to use code tags, because both of your samples appear identical without them. Also, you probably made a mistake and typed 678 in place of 789 at some point.

Regards,
Alister

3

Thanks for the tip. Fixed.

4

What operating system are you using? Please show us the exact command that you used?

When I try the command:

paste File1 File2 File3

with the data you showed us for those three files, I get the output:

123	234	456
	345	789
	678

or (with \t replacing tab characters):

123\t234\t456
\t345\t789
\t678\t

which seems to match what you said you wanted.

5

The OS is RHEL. The output is as you have listed from command line. The column alignment is messed up when paste is used in a script.

6

What you are saying doesn't make sense. We must be missing some context.

Please post your script and show us where the output from paste has messed up column alignment.

7

What version of red hat? what shell
Appears to work fine in bash/zsh for me.

$ paste 1 2 3
123     234     456
        345     789
        678