6

I have a textfile like:

Adam
Bob
Cevin
David
Evan

If I "paste - -" it, I get:

Adam   Bob
Cevin  David
Evan

But I need that the lower half will be added as a new column:

Adam  David
Bob   Evan
Cevin

Is there a easy way to do this?

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3
  • So you want to split the input file in two columns while retaining its order? Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 10:06
  • Yeah right, pr -t2 worked :) Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 10:09
  • 4
    Looks like you want to print the columns down rather than across, and it doesn't have much to do with sorting. Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 10:19

1 Answer 1

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9

You could use:

pr -t -2 file

Beware it truncates the lines that are wider than half the page width (72 characters by default, see the -w option to change it).

(note that with the GNU implementation, the column alignment may be off if the file contains multi-byte or zero-width or double-width characters). Or:

pr -t -2 -s file

to separate the columns with one tab character like paste does (there's no truncation then).

Note however that pr treats the form-feed character (^L) as a page delimiter. Not a problem if that character is not present in your file.

Or with zsh:

print -r -C2 -- ${(f)"$(<file)"}
  • $(<file): grab the content of file
  • (f): split it on linefeed (newline) characters
  • -r: print raw
  • -C2: on 2 Columns.
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4
  • I've tried reading the man page for pr and couldn't find where it accepts a number after -t... would you tell me? I always find man pages difficult. thanks! Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 12:50
  • 2
    @JorgeeFG That's not a number after -t, that's the -2 option. -COLUMN, --columns=COLUMN in the GNU pr man page. I'll break the -t2 down in the answer to avoid confusion. Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 13:00
  • So do you mean for the other types of characters, you suggest we use pr, but a non-GNU implementation? Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 18:17
  • 1
    @Pysis, if you care about column alignment with non-ASCII text, then yes. You could try the pr from the heirloom toolchest which seems to work OK. Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 19:05

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