# Transpose using awk

**URL:** <https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102>\
**Category:** Shell Programming and Scripting\
**Created:** [July 21, 2009, 9:59am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102 "2009-07-21T09:59:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/new_ds_man/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/u/new_ds_man)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 9:59am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/1 "2009-07-21T09:59:38Z")

</div>

I have a requirement to transpose the below xml which is in a text file on unix:

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<REQUEST>
<ID>XXX</ID>
<TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP>
<FLAG>Y</FLAG>
<TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
</REQUEST>

```

to

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>XXX</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>
 

```

the current awk command that i am using provides the output truncating all the spaces as below, the spaces in the tag

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?>

```

are removed:

```nohighlight
<?xmlversion="1.0"?><REQUEST><ID>XXX</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>

```

the awk command i am using:

```nohighlight
awk '$1=$1' RS='' OFS='' test_trans.txt > SEQS_TRANS_test.txt

```

Help appreciated , Thanks in Advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zaxxon](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/zaxxon/32/660_2.png) [@zaxxon](https://community.unix.com/u/zaxxon)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 10:04am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/2 "2009-07-21T10:04:04Z")

</div>

Edit your post and use CODE tags when displaying code, data or logs to enhance readability and to preserve formatting like indention etc.,ty.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rakeshawasthi](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/rakeshawasthi/32/224_2.png) [@rakeshawasthi](https://community.unix.com/u/rakeshawasthi)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 10:04am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/3 "2009-07-21T10:04:05Z")

</div>

Try:

```nohighlight
awk '{printf $0} END {printf "\n"}' file

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vgersh99](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/vgersh99/32/14851_2.png) [@vgersh99](https://community.unix.com/u/vgersh99)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 10:12am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/4 "2009-07-21T10:12:37Z")

</div>

To keep the forums high quality for all users, please take the time to format your posts correctly.

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````auto
```text
 and 
```

````

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Third, be careful when you cut-and-paste, edit any odd characters and make sure all links are working property.

Thank You.

The UNIX and Linux Forums

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/new_ds_man/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/u/new_ds_man)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/5 "2009-07-21T11:58:13Z")

</div>

Moderators, I will keep in mind not to post those again.

Thanks for the response rakeshawasti......

But there is a space at every new line.

like below:

```nohighlight
[?xml version="1.0" ?][REQUEST] [ID>497[/ID] [TIMESTAMP]20090720062610[TIMESTAMP] [FLAG]Y[/FLAG] [TO_FLAG]Y[/TO_FLAG][/REQUEST]

```

can we eliminate those spaces as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Franklin52](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/franklin52/32/500_2.png) [@Franklin52](https://community.unix.com/u/Franklin52)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/6 "2009-07-21T12:19:37Z")

</div>

Try this:

```nohighlight
awk '1' ORS= file

```

If you want a newline at the end:

```nohighlight
awk '{print} END{print "\n"}' ORS= file

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/new_ds_man/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/u/new_ds_man)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/7 "2009-07-21T18:12:17Z")

</div>

Still struggling with it, i am posting a complete picture of what i am facing trouble with......

The XML available for me is in the below format:

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<REQUEST>
 <ID>874</ID>
 <TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP>
 <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
 <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
</REQUEST>
 
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<REQUEST>
 <ID>000</ID>
 <TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP>
 <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
 <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
</REQUEST>

```

I need that to be transposed into below:

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>874</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>000</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>

```

As mentioned in the above every new XML starts with the tag

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?>

```

Also something to be noted is that the XML tag contains spaces which should stay.

```nohighlight
<?xml version="1.0" ?>

```

Thanks in Advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vgersh99](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/vgersh99/32/14851_2.png) [@vgersh99](https://community.unix.com/u/vgersh99)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/8 "2009-07-21T18:22:58Z")

</div>

```nohighlight
nawk '
   BEGIN {
      RS=FS=OFS=""
   }
   {for(i=2;i<=NF;i++) gsub(" ", "", $i); print}' myFile

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ryandegreat25](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/ryandegreat25/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@ryandegreat25](https://community.unix.com/u/ryandegreat25)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/9 "2009-07-21T21:22:36Z")

</div>

try..

```nohighlight
-bash-3.2$ cat test
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<REQUEST>
 <ID>874</ID>
 <TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP>
 <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
 <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
</REQUEST>

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<REQUEST>
 <ID>000</ID>
 <TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP>
 <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
 <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
</REQUEST>
-bash-3.2$ echo `cat test` | sed 's/> </></g'
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>874</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST><?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>000</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>
-bash-3.2$

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/new_ds_man/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@new\_ds\_man](https://community.unix.com/u/new_ds_man)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 9:58am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/10 "2009-07-22T09:58:19Z")

</div>

ryandegreat....thanks for the code, but i need the every \<xml version...\> tag in new line.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rubin](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/rubin/32/743_2.png) [@rubin](https://community.unix.com/u/rubin)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/11 "2009-07-22T14:34:24Z")

</div>

> [@new\\\_ds\_man](#):
>
> Still struggling with it, i am posting a complete picture of what i am facing trouble with......
> 
> The XML available for me is in the below format:
> 
> ```plaintext
> <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> <REQUEST>
> <ID>874</ID>
> <TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP>
> <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
> <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
> </REQUEST>
>  
> <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> <REQUEST>
> <ID>000</ID>
> <TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP>
> <FLAG>Y</FLAG>
> <TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG>
> </REQUEST>
> 
> ```
> 
> ...  
> As mentioned in the above every new XML starts with the tag
> 
> ```plaintext
> <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> 
> ```
> 
> Also something to be noted is that the XML tag contains spaces which should stay.
> 
> ```plaintext
> <?xml version="1.0" ?>
> 
> ```
> 
> ...

Assuming the xml tag format will remain ( as described ) constant: \<?xml + spaces + version="Nr-dot-Nr" + spaces + ?\> , this might be enough:

```plaintext
awk '/^<\?xml( |\t)+version="[0-9]+\.[0-9]+"( |\t)+\?>$/ && NR>1{ printf RS $0; next}
      NF { sub(/^[\t]+/,""); print } END{ print RS }' ORS= filename

```

Output:

```plaintext
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>874</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720062610</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>
<?xml version="1.0" ?><REQUEST><ID>000</ID><TIMESTAMP>20090720061218</TIMESTAMP><FLAG>Y</FLAG><TO_FLAG>Y</TO_FLAG></REQUEST>

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Franklin52](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/franklin52/32/500_2.png) [@Franklin52](https://community.unix.com/u/Franklin52)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/12 "2009-07-22T14:39:18Z")

</div>

Try this:

```nohighlight
awk 'BEGIN{RS=ORS="\n\n"} $1=$1' file

```

Regards

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ryandegreat25](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/ryandegreat25/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@ryandegreat25](https://community.unix.com/u/ryandegreat25)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/13 "2009-07-22T20:49:22Z")

</div>

try this from franklin

```nohighlight
awk 'BEGIN{RS=ORS="\n\n"} $1=$1' test | grep . | sed 's/> </></g'

```

or

```nohighlight
echo `cat test`| sed -e 's|</REQUEST> |&\n|g' -e 's|> <|><|g'

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![edidataguy](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/edidataguy/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@edidataguy](https://community.unix.com/u/edidataguy)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/transpose-using-awk/245102/14 "2009-07-22T21:55:03Z")

</div>

```nohighlight
 
sed 's/^ *//' file.xml | tr -d '\x0A'

```