Printing Out Selected Fields from Different Lines 1

[thunderkid]

I have a special challenge in working with extracting data from text files. Below is the format of text file that I would like to extract data:

1111 bbbbbbbbb
3333333333333333333333333333333333333
ddddd 55555 eeeeee 777777

2222 cccccccc
8888888888888888888888888888888888888
fffff 99999 gggggg 999999

Desired output:
1111 bbbbbbbbb 55555 777777
2222 ccccccccc 99999 999999

Any help or assistance is appreciated.

 

[flogrr]

Hi Thunderkid!

This is a real simple way to do it by setting the record
separator to one or more blank lines as in your example:

awk 'BEGIN{RS=""}

{
output = sprintf("%s %s %s %s\n", $1, $2, $5, $7 )
print output

}' filename

By setting RS to null it allows the three lines to become
one record and you can parse it accordingly. Format the
sprintf as you wish- I used your example of 1 space, 2
spaces, 3 spaces (for example).

Hope this helps!



flogrr
flogr@yahoo.com

 

[flogrr]

Actually it's even easier:

awk 'BEGIN{RS=""}

{
print $1" "$2" "$5" "$7

}' filename


Jesse


flogrr
flogr@yahoo.com