OrderCols

Orders columns of a file from a given list of column names.

This script is designed to work on large files and has been tested with 5M rows and 100 columns (~ 2 minutes).

Usage

sh ordercols.sh list_file input_file [Separator]

Example

List file

A       B       C       D       E

This is the order you want to get from your input file.

Input file

C       D       B       E       A
1       2       3       4       5

This is the input file that you want to sort. The column names must match those in the list file.

Calling

sh ordercols.sh list1.txt input1.txt

Here, we don't need to specify the separator, as the default one is "\t".

Output

A       B       C       D       E
5       3       1       2       4

Options

Separator

By default the separator is "\t".

But you can specify your own separator, like this : sh ordercols.sh list2.txt input2.txt ";"

What it does

Basically, we are constructing an awk command from several tools in the shell.

This command is then sent to a file and executed.

If you look at the code, you'll see that's it's a bunch of tricks and not elegant. But it works.

I'm opened to suggestions !