column to row using "," as delimter

Question

I have a list of objects in column (file_column.txt) and I want to transpose this objects in row using "," as delimiter in a new file (file_row.txt).

Es.

file_column.txt:
Art
14f
adr
a24

file_row.txt:
Art,14f,adr,a24

I try to use this code:

paste -s -d " " tabella.txt

but the result it isn't right because I obtained this:

Art
,14f
,adr
,a24

Can you help me please?

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '20 at 09:17

4

You have to use the right delimiter (comma) with the -d parameter:

cat file
Art
14f
adr
a24

paste -sd, file
Art,14f,adr,a24

answered Oct 21 '20 at 09:17

thanasisp

The result is the same. The objects aren't in row but in column – Tommaso Palomba Oct 21 '20 at 09:24
3

You have carriage returns in the files. Run `dos2unix` on any input file. What you described is possibly the result of having `^M` or `\r`, Windows line endings, at the end of your file lines. – thanasisp Oct 21 '20 at 09:25
thank's! I've done. Now works – Tommaso Palomba Oct 21 '20 at 09:28

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 21 '20 at 11:05

0

#! /bin/bash

while read line
 do
  string="${string},${line}"
 done < file_column.txt

echo ${string#","} > file_row.txt

This works.

The while read construction is more portable as it uses only Bash syntax and the builtin read.

answered Oct 21 '20 at 11:05

Asker321

2

Paste is a POSIX tool, Bash is not, so the portability claim is not true (although that script does not contain any bashism). Also see [Why is using a shell loop to process text considered bad practice?](https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/169716). – Quasímodo Oct 21 '20 at 15:17
Well, thanks for destroying me constructively. It's always nice to learn. – Asker321 Oct 23 '20 at 22:55
1

Hey, no intention to *destroy*, only to constructively criticize ;) And I guess we have all been there as well! – Quasímodo Oct 24 '20 at 17:51

2 Answers2