why "cut -d" command does not work well in my data?

mauludi · 02-02-2011, 10:37 PM

Dear All,

I have data file called "data1" which contain:

76.0023 0.607915 21.9427 29.8115
76.0026 0.135949 2.79735 38.1032
76.007 0.0519359 51.5472 16.0616
76.007 0.667013 16.8161 40.6055
76.0083 0.0713691 26.9012 46.1717
76.0092 0.657112 11.1443 51.7081
76.0148 0.0344147 2.50109 14.1176

I will take data in each column by this "script" file which contain:

cut -d " " -f1 data1 > colom1
cut -d " " -f2 data1 > colom2
cut -d " " -f3 data1 > colom3

"colom1" file is right but "colom2" and "colom3" are wrong.
colom2:

0.607915
0.135949

0.0713691

colom3:

0.0519359
0.667013

where the problem comes from? how to solve that?

thank you for your help

with best wishes

Tinkster · 02-02-2011, 11:03 PM

First thought: you're using TAB and SPACE characters in the
file, but only SPACE for cut.

Possible solution: use awk - it handles ANY whitespace as
separator:

Code:

awk '{print $1 >> "colom1"; print $2 >> "colom2"; print $3 >> "colom3" }' data1

mauludi · 02-02-2011, 11:53 PM

thank you a lot for your help.