In this article, let us review how to use Unix tac command, rev command, paste command, and join command with practical examples.
1. tac command – Print file in reverse (last line first)
The word tac is reverse of the word cat. The tac command functionality is also reverse of the cat command. cat command prints the file. tac command prints the file in reverse order with the last line first.
$ cat thegeekstuff.txt 1. Linux Sysadmin, Scripting etc., 2. Databases Oracle, mySQL etc., 3. Hardware 4. Security (Firewall, Network, Online Security etc) 5. Storage 6. Cool gadgets and websites 7. Productivity (Too many technologies to explore, not much time available) 8. Website Design 9. Software Development 10. Windows Sysadmin, reboot etc., 11. Adding 1's and 0's $ tac thegeekstuff.txt 11. Adding 1's and 0's 10. Windows Sysadmin, reboot etc., 9. Software Development 8. Website Design 7. Productivity (Too many technologies to explore, not much time available) 6. Cool gadgets and websites 5. Storage 4. Security (Firewall, Network, Online Security etc) 3. Hardware 2. Databases Oracle, mySQL etc., 1. Linux Sysadmin, Scripting etc.,
2. rev command – Reverse the order of characters in every line
Reverse the order of characters in every line as shown in the example below. It is different from tac command, as rev command reverses each character of the line, whereas tac command reverses each line of the file.
$ rev thegeekstuff.txt ,.cte gnitpircS ,nimdasyS xuniL .1 ,.cte LQSym ,elcarO sesabataD .2 erawdraH .3 )cte ytiruceS enilnO ,krowteN ,llaweriF( ytiruceS .4 egarotS .5 setisbew dna stegdag looC .6 )elbaliava emit hcum ton ,erolpxe ot seigolonhcet ynam ooT( ytivitcudorP .7 ngiseD etisbeW .8 tnempoleveD erawtfoS .9 ,.cte toober ,nimdasyS swodniW .01 s'0 dna s'1 gniddA .11
3. paste command – Merge file lines
Paste the line1 of file1, file2, .. fileN into the line1 of the output. It will repeat the same for all lines. Each file’s line will be delimited by tab.
Paste output:
$ paste f1 f2 f3 f1-line1<tab>f2-line1<tab>f3-line1 f1-line2<tab>f2-line2<tab>f3-line2 f1-line3<tab>f2-line3<tab>f3-line3 ...
In the following example, corresponding lines from three different files are combined and shown appropriately.
$ cat emp-number.txt 100 200 300 400 500 $ cat emp-firstname.txt Emma Alex Madison Sanjay Nisha $ cat emp-lastname.txt Thomas Jason Randy Gupta Singh $ paste emp-number.txt emp-firstname.txt emp-lastname.txt 100 Emma Thomas 200 Alex Jason 300 Madison Randy 400 Sanjay Gupta 500 Nisha Singh
4. join – Join lines of two files based on a common field
You can join two files based on a common field, that you can specify using field.
Syntax: $ join -t':' -1 N -2 N file1 file2
- -t’:’ – : is the field separator
- -1 N : Nth field in 1st file
- -2 N : Nth field in 2nd file
- file1 file2 : files that should be joined
In this example, let us combine employee.txt and bonus.txt files using the common employee number field.
$ cat employee.txt 100 Emma Thomas 200 Alex Jason 300 Madison Randy 400 Sanjay Gupta 500 Nisha Singh $ cat bonus.txt $5,000 100 $5,500 200 $6,000 300 $7,000 400 $9,500 500 $ join -1 1 -2 2 employee.txt bonus.txt 100 Emma Thomas $5,000 200 Alex Jason $5,500 300 Madison Randy $6,000 400 Sanjay Gupta $7,000 500 Nisha Singh $9,500
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I did not know about the paste command, but it will be very useful for me. Thanks again, for the clear and to-the-point examples!
Excelente página
Translation: Spanish » English
Excellent page
tac command is a new one for me … Thanks!!
Hi,
I have a question about join.
how could the output file use tab instead of space as separator in the above sample?
Thanks!
to use tabs as delimiters instead of commas change the -t parameter.
if you want to change the commas to tabs then use tr
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the tip. However, would you please use the sample above to show the result file using tr?
Thanks!
isn’t it possible to emulate the basic function of paste with the shell, using nested for loops and printf?
is paste another one of unix’s many redundant utilities?
is paste(1) redundant? (at least partially)
here’s an example of what i mean:
http://pastebin.com/4grdppt9
Using tabs as the separator with Gnu join (even though they look better) failed (at least on cygwin). I’m using:
$ join –version
join (GNU coreutils) 8.14
Packaged by Cygwin (8.14-1)
I got this error:
$ join -t “\t” -1 1 -2 2 temp emp-bonus
join: multi-character tab `\\t’.
Colons also are a common field separator in Unix. These commands work well:
$ paste -d : emp-number emp-firstname emp-lastname > temp
$ join -t : -1 1 -2 2 temp emp-bonus
$ cat emp-firstname emp-number emp-lastname emp-bonus
Emma
Alex
Madisonny
Sanjay
Nisha
100
200
300
400
500
Thomas
Jason
Randy
Gupta
Singh
$5,000:100
$5,500:200
$6,000:300
$7,000:400
$9,500:500
$ paste -d : emp-number emp-firstname emp-lastname > temp
$ cat temp
100:Emma:Thomas
200:Alex:Jason
300:Madisonny:Randy
400:Sanjay:Gupta
500:Nisha:Singh
$ join -t : -1 1 -2 2 temp emp-bonus
100:Emma:Thomas:$5,000
200:Alex:Jason:$5,500
300:Madison:Randy:$6,000
400:Sanjay:Gupta:$7,000
500:Nisha:Singh:$9,500
To tab-space the output (though long fields look bad):
$ join -t : -1 1 -2 2 temp emp-bonus | tr : “\t”
100 Emma Thomas $5,000
200 Alex Jason $5,500
300 Madisonny Randy $6,000
400 Sanjay Gupta $7,000
500 Nisha Singh $9,500
Its really very useful commands, i was unaware of these commands, Thanks a lot.
It is very useful. thanks
Its really very useful commands Thanks
I thought I knew most of the major unix shell commands (been using it for 20 years) but these are new to me! Great post. Thanks.
And I’ve used ‘rev’ already! Thanks again!
Colum
i tyried using REV command however i encountered with the error stating “ksh: rev: not found”
kindly guide me on wat changes do i need to do for this.