Re: Combine Text Files

If you are on *nx system (console):

cat a b |sort | sed -r 'N;/([^;]*).*\n\1/s|\n[^;]*||'


a b      your files
cat      concatenate the files
sort     sort the combined file
sed:
    N                    add next line
    /([^;]*).*\n\1/      find repeating strings
     s|\n[^;]*|          delete second string


On 18/05/16 16:17, Ufuk YILDIRIM [email protected] [sed-users]
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
> First thing first, I am a total noob using sed. I can use it for simple 
> tasks, but now I need to use it for a for-me-very-complex task. I have 4 
> files of student data containing students responses to 4 different 
> tests. Some students took two tests some only took one. I want to 
> combine the results of a student who took 2 tests in a single line and 
> get single file which has all the students and their responses in one 
> file. Can I do it with sed? And, if yes, how do I do it?
>
>
> To clarify my question, here is two file version.
>
>
> fileA.txt
>
>
> ID111;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a
> ID222222;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a
> ID3333;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a
>
>
> FileB.txt
>
>
> ID111;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID44;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID3333;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID555;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
>
>
>
>
> result.txt
> ID111;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID222222;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a
> ID3333;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;a;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID44;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
> ID555;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b;b
>
>
> Thank you very much  in advance
>
>
> Ufuk YILDIRIM
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Posted by: Ufuk YILDIRIM <[email protected]>
> ------------------------------------
>