[SOLVED] repeating lines X number of times based on variable using awk(?)

captainentropy · 06-22-2012, 08:04 PM

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is possible with awk. I don't know enough perl/python to approach this. It seems doable with awk but I don't know where to begin.

I have a file in this format:

Code:

5	apple	A
3	pear	B
1	banana	C
2	orange	D

I need to repeat the lines based on the variable in the first column so that the above data looks like this:

Code:

apple	A
apple	A
apple	A
apple	A
apple	A
pear	B
pear	B
pear	B
banana	C
orange	D
orange	D

Any ideas?

grail · 06-23-2012, 05:17 AM

Probably need to know more about how the remaining data needs to be formatted, but without this:

Code:

awk '{for(i=1;i<=$1;i++)print $2,$3}' OFS="\t" file

captainentropy · 06-25-2012, 03:19 PM

Thanks grail! This worked perfectly. No extra formatting needed. It seems like everything I need awk and/or sed can do it.