I have a text file that looks like
file1 value1
file1 value2
file2 value1
file2 value2
file2 value3
I want to split the text file in multiple files, with the filenames from column1 and column2 as content of the files, like
file1_new.txt
value1
value2
file2_new.txt
value1
value2
value3
I tried it with the following script, but that does not work. Can someone please help me with rewriting the script?
cat input.txt | while read file value; do
echo "$value" > "$file"_new.txt
done
Use >> instead of > to append.
Don't overwrite the file. Append to the file instead:
cat input.txt | while read file value; do
echo "$value" >> "$file"_new.txt
done
Note my change from > to >>, which means "append to the file".
When you use >, if the target file exists, its content will be cleared before the current command writes its output to the file, so the files end up containing the last value. When you use >>, the file's content won't be cleared and new output is appended to the end of the file, which is what you want.
You could use this awk:
$ awk '{print $2 > $1 "_new.txt"}' file
Since it leaves open all the files you may run out of fds. In that case you should close() the files after each write and change the > to >> for appending:
$ awk '{print $2 > $1 "_new.txt"; close($1 "_new.txt")}' file
Naturally, if the file is sorted on $1 you only need to close() the output file once it changes.
echo "$value" > "$file"_new.txt will create a new $file_new.txt each time, writing $value into it.
You want to use the >> operator to append each $value to $file.
