delete line if no data in all columns?

[rhnaeco]

hi, I have a file which has been been created by a series of awk and sed commands which should have 4 columns.

unfortunately some lines have some data missing and thus only have 2 or 3 columns.

the subsequent running of a fortran script doesn't like this change and it exits.

so far i have been using GMT's minmax command to find these rogue lines in order to delete them, but it's becoming tedious.

Is there a way that awk (or sed) can sort through the files and only print the correct lines with 4 columns?

thanks in advance

 

[PHV]

awk 'NF==4' /path/to/input >output

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[Krunek]

Hello, rhnaeco!

You can try this

awk 'NF > 3' file[s]

or (if you wish to see filename)

awk 'NF > 3 { print FILENAME, $0 }' file[s]

Jesus loves you. Bye!

KP.

 

[rhnaeco]

thanks to both of you, problem solved!