Re: cut - reorder fields (original) (raw)

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From: Bob Proulx
Subject: Re: cut - reorder fields
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:29:00 -0600
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.9i

James KEEFER wrote:

As far as I can see, there is no way to re-order fields using cut.

That is correct. But other tools do this easily.

It would be nice to be able to specify -f 3,2,1 and have the first three fields switched in their order. It would also be nice to repeat an input fields in the output, such as -f 1,1,1 repeating the first field three times.

I suggest using awk for this. It is a standard tool that will do exactly what you are asking.

$ echo one two three four | awk '{print 3,3,3,1,$2}' three one two

$ echo one two three four | awk '{print 3,3,3,2,$1,$2}' three two one two

Using awk just seems perfectly fitted to these types of tasks.

Bob