new line to tab in every second column

Question

[mbk0asis]

Hi.

I have a Primer3 result txt file which all the primers are in one column.

0    ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG
0    CTCCCAAAATACTAAAATTATAA
1    TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG
1    CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2    TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG
2    CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3    GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT
3    ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA

As all you can guess, I want to paste every second lines (RIGHT) next to first ones (LEFT) to look like below.

0    ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG   TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG
1    TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG   CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2    TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG   CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3    GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT    ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA

I think using 'awk' would be easy and simple, so I was trying to run something like below. However, I can't really figure that out.

awk 'if($1 is equal or pairs) {new line to tab}'

It doesn't have be 'awk', but it would be great if I can do batch run.

If anyone have any ideas, please enlight me!

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Ming Tommy Tang]

even more elegant:

cat test.txt| paste - -                               
0    ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG    0    CTCCCAAAATACTAAAATTATAA
1    TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG    1    CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2    TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG    2    CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3    GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT     3    ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA

[mbk0asis]

Wow! It's so simple. Thank you very much, tangming2005!

Answer 2

[Ming Tommy Tang]

This should do the trick. find it here http://serverfault.com/questions/375096/bash-sed-awk-etc-remove-every-other-newline

cat test.txt| awk 'ORS=NR%2?"\t":"\n"'          

0    ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG    0    CTCCCAAAATACTAAAATTATAA
1    TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG    1    CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2    TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG    2    CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3    GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT     3    ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA

Answer 3

[5heikki]

Output delimiter is space though:

xargs -L2 < file
0 ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG 0 CTCCCAAAATACTAAAATTATAA
1 TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG 1 CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2 TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG 2 CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3 GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT 3 ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA

We can fix it with tr:

xargs -L2 < file | tr " " "\t"
0   ATTTTATTNGAAATAGTAGTGGG 0   CTCCCAAAATACTAAAATTATAA
1   TTTTAGTTATTTANGAGGTTGAG 1   CNTAATCTTAACTCACTACAACC
2   TTATAATTTTAGTATTTTGGGAG 2   CATATTAACCAAACTAATCTTAA
3   GGTTAATATGGTGAAATTTAAT  3   ACCTCAACCTCNTAAATAACTAA