Split file using awk

I am trying to read a file and split the file into multiple files. I need to create new files with different set of lines from the original file. ie, the first output file may contain 10 lines and the second 100 lines and so on. The criteria is to get the lines between two lines starting with some characters(variable)

eg. A sample input file

DOC100
aaaaaa
bbbbbb
cccccccc
END
DOC200
ddddddd
eeeeeee
END

I need to send the lines between DOC100 and END to out.1
and lines between DOC200 and the next END to out.2

I thought I could do this using awk and I tried the following command but it didn't work.

k=grep DOC $filename|cut -c4-6
awk -v cn=$k '/DOC$cn/,/END/ { print $0 }' $filename >$outfile

Can anyone help me on this? Thanks

A script such as this will name the files out.100, out.200 where the number corresponds to whatever follows "DOC"

#!/bin/sh

while read line
do
   if echo $line | grep DOC; then
       line_no=`echo $line | sed 's/DOC\([0-9]*\)/\1/g'`
   elif echo $line | grep END; then
       : #ignore
   else
       echo $line >> out.$line_no
   fi
done < file.txt

Where file.txt contains your data.

This is a quick script and there's room for improvement, but you get the idea.

Cheers
ZB

1 Like

Using awk..

awk '/^DOC/{f=$1} f{print > f} /^END/{close f}' infile

Thanks zazzybob and Ygor for your help. But I see some problem with each of your scripts.

zazzybob's script - First of all I have a fixed length data file that I need to split. The script creates seperate files with the intended data but it ignores the spaces in the fields, means it concatenates the fields leaving out the spaces in them.

Ygor's script - Your script creates only one file named DOC with the data between the last DOC/END. But it puts the data like what it is in the input file, that is a good sign.

To solve the problem with the script I posted, just put quotes around "$line", thusly

echo "$line" >> out.$line_no

That will preserve the whitespace

Cheers
ZB

I didn't read the bit about filenames like "doc.1" before. Try this instead...

awk '/^DOC/{f="doc."++d} f{print > f} /^END/{close f; f=""}' infile

$ head -1000000 doc.*
==> doc.1 <==
DOC100
aaaaaa
bbbbbb
cccccccc
END

==> doc.2 <==
DOC200
ddddddd
eeeeeee
END

1 Like

zazzybob's script works fine now.

Ygor's script still have an issue. It creates seperate output files now but it puts lines starting with DOC & END also in the output files. I just need the data between those lines.

Thanks agin for the help.

Moving things around...

awk '/^END/{close f; f=""} f{print > f} /^DOC/{f="doc."++d}' infile

$ head -1000000 doc.*
==> doc.1 <==
aaaaaa
bbbbbb
cccccccc

==> doc.2 <==
ddddddd
eeeeeee

That worked. Thanks.