how to rearrange a text file with awk
 

Hi,

I have a text file which is created by the output of a du command and it looks like this:

What I'd like to do would be to get awk (or something else) to sort the username and put each of the same instance in a separate column.

The result I'd like would be:

Some users have 3 folders which would mean the final file would have 3 columnm.

Is this something awk can do?

I looked at paste but I wasn't too sure what was best.

Thanks,

Here, it is.

Now, the output as per your example will be.
Now, we just need to align the columns. I have done this before, but do not remember the commands. :o

Let me check if in case I can find something useful for you.

you can do all that with just awk going through the file just ONCE.
output

Brilliant. Thanks very much now I have what I need and have my first script finished and work :D

Thank you to both of you ghostdog74 & vikas027

Ghostdog, how can we align in this text. Could you please help ?
Thanks in adv.

if formatting needs to be done, it can done using printf with left/right justification format specifiers, eg %10s, %-15s etc...

I tried printf function But could not succeed. :o

Is there something like I can define that any particular column, say column 3 starts from a particular column of screen say 35th (i.e. after 34 characters from left).

its all in the manual..
i don't usually care with formatting, but you can read this to see if its what you need

Ghostdog74 I am just looking at your code again

is there a way to sort the results alphabetically using awk?

Thanks,

of course. you can use gawk's internal asort() or asorti() (check the gawk manual (my sig) and see how to use them, or just pipe the output to sort. simple?