Convert a number on each line to CSV file

OlRoy · 08-19-2008, 12:23 PM

I have a file that contains a lot of lines, and each line has only one number on it. What would be the easiest way to convert it into one line containing CSVs?

Sample data:

Code:

I want it in this format: 2,4,4,4,8,1

If I had a choice, I'd like it to be done in PERL.

pwc101 · 08-19-2008, 12:33 PM

Code:

tr "\n" "," < input_file > output_file

You have one comma at the end of the last record in output_file, but you should be able to get rid of that easily enough if you really have to.

edit: Sorry, didn't see the requirement to do this in perl. I'm useless at perl, so can't help there.

OlRoy · 08-19-2008, 12:56 PM

I like your way better than if it wasn't done in PERL. Thanks!

pwc101 · 08-19-2008, 01:01 PM

No problem.

There's also the column command, but I couldn't get it to separate the fields with commas; it seems like it's designed with that sort of functionality in mind though. Still, if this works, it'll do!

colucix · 08-19-2008, 03:49 PM

Great solution! However, if the column file terminates with a newline, you will get an extra comma at the end of the output string. Maybe something like this does the trick:

Code:

echo $(cat file) | tr " " ","

Sorry, I'm not good with Perl, too!

kenoshi · 08-19-2008, 06:42 PM

Assuming data is in abc.txt, perl one liner would be:

Code:

perl -e 'chomp(@data=<STDIN>);print join(",",@data),"\n";' < abc.txt

Hope this helps.

Kenhelm · 08-20-2008, 05:02 AM

Two more methods:-

Code:

paste -sd, infile > outfile

sed ':a N;s/\n/,/;ta' infile > outfile

OlRoy · 08-20-2008, 07:43 AM

Choices, choices, choices. Now I have a different way to do it for every day of the week. Thanks guys!

wget · 08-20-2008, 09:06 AM

And just for fun another one using the vi editor:

With the cursor at the start of the very first line

:.,$j

and then

:s/ /,/g

delete any extra comma's at the end

ghostdog74 · 08-20-2008, 11:05 AM

since there's no entry for awk yet

Code:

# awk '{$1=$1}1' RS="" OFS="," file
2,4,4,4,8,1