HELP WITH AWK 2

[johngiggs]

I have the following awk script used to change the output to display 4 columns from an imput file with 1 column:

BEGIN {
if (cols == "&quot
cols=4;
}

{ printf("%-20s ", $1, $2, $3, $4"\n&quot }
!(FNR % cols) {print "\n"}
The output displays like the example below:

c00001 c00015 c00017 c00049
c01234 c01231 c01321 c00123


Can someone please explain to me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,

John

 

[vgersh99]

BEGIN {
if (cols == "&quot
cols=4;
}

{ printf("%-20s ", $0) }
!(FNR % cols) {print "\n"}

vlad
+----------------------------+
| #include<disclaimer.h> |
+----------------------------+

 

[PHV]

Try this:

BEGIN{if(cols=="")cols=4}
{printf "%-20s",$0;if(!(NR%cols))printf "\n"}
END{if(!(NR%cols))printf "\n"}

You can also consider pr, like this:

pr -t -a -4 -w 80 YourInputFile

Hope This Help
PH.

 

[johngiggs]

Vlad,

I have already tried that and it returns the same results. Could it be something to do with my display or terminal settings? I would like the columns to appear like the example below:

c00001 c00015 c00017 c00049
c01234 c01231 c01321 c00123
c01214 c01211 c01321 c00452

Thanks,

John

 

[johngiggs]

PHV,

Thanks, that works great!! Do you have any idea why Vlad's example was not working? I am almost certain that I have used that before and had successful results.

Thanks,

John

 

[vgersh99]

john,
that's what I'm getting. Spool your output to a file and take a look at it in the editor.

vlad
+----------------------------+
| #include<disclaimer.h> |
+----------------------------+

 

[johngiggs]

Vlad,

Even when I redirect my output to a file and view it with an editor it is appearing diagonally. I'm not sure what the problem is.

Thanks,

John

 

[Ygor]

As a footnote, it is probably worth mentioning the paste command. To display 4 columns from an input file with 1 column....

paste - - - - <file1

which is tab separated, but if you prefer fixed-width ....

paste - - - - <file1 |awk '{printf &quot;%-20s%-20s%-20s%-20s\n&quot;,$1,$2,$3,$4}'

 

[johngiggs]

Thanks, Ygor!!

I wouldn't have thought of using the paste command.

Thanks,

John