1

I was trying to merge files using either of these commands:

paste data_{1..2}.txt > 1_2.txt

paste <(awk '{print $1}' data_2.txt ) <(awk '{print $1}' data_2.txt) > 1_2.txt

But the columns in the output don't line up. I tried to clean tabs and spaces but I still get the same result. Here is my sample data below for data_1.txt:

TMAX
34.2481
19.1582
-0.903817
-0.408851
-0.849964
0.596377
0.922126
-5.13179
-17.4449
-15.1031
-12.5849
-12.2548

...and for data_2.txt:

TMAX
33.629
18.5924
-1.37411
-1.00714
-1.48201
0.0046866
0.295162
-5.69127
-18.0672
-15.7163
-13.1048
-12.8443
-11.9689

The combined output:

TMAX
    TMAX
34.2481
    33.629
19.1582
    18.5924
-0.903817
    -1.37411
-0.408851
    -1.00714
-0.849964
    -1.48201
0.596377
    0.0046866
0.922126
    0.295162
-5.13179
    -5.69127
-17.4449
    -18.0672
-15.1031
    -15.7163

What is expected of course is for the columns to line up like so:

TMAX    TMAX
34.2481 33.629
19.1582 18.5924
-0.903817   -1.37411
-0.408851   -1.00714
-0.849964   -1.48201
0.596377    0.0046866
0.922126    0.295162
-5.13179    -5.69127
-17.4449    -18.0672
-15.1031    -15.7163
-12.5849    -13.1048
-12.2548    -12.8443
-11.371 -11.9689

Why am I getting the distorted output with lines split and indentation?

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5
  • 2
    Does cat -et data_1.txt show any weird output? Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 20:35
  • Yes it does. Here is the weird output TMAX^M$ 34.2481^M$ 19.1582^M$ -0.903817^M$ -0.408851^M$ -0.849964^M$ 0.596377^M$ 0.922126^M$ -5.13179^M$ -17.4449^M$ -15.1031^M$ -12.5849^M$ -12.2548^M$ -11.371^M$ -7.87503^M$ -13.6309^M$ -21.1465^M$ Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 20:51
  • 3
    Your files ends with \r\n instead of \n. Just remove \r and try paste again. Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 20:54
  • @Gnouc, Thank you for pointing out my problem. I removed them using dos2unix data_2.txt Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 20:59
  • The title could be edited to better describe the problem for people who are later Googling for similar things, but I can't think of a better one myself... Ideas? Commented Sep 2, 2014 at 21:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

It seems that your files contain some special characters, like carriage return \r\n. You can check using:

cat -et file

If has, you should remove \r before using paste:

tr -d '\r'
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