Computer Science
JOIN(1) JOIN(1)
NAME
join - join lines of two files on a common field
SYNOPSIS
join [-a 1|2] [-v 1|2] [-e empty-string] [-o field-
list...] [-t char] [-j[1|2] field] [-1 field] [-2 field]
file1 file2
join {--help,--version}
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of join. join
prints to the standard output a line for each pair of
input lines, one each from file1 and file2, that have
identical join fields. Either filename (but not both) can
be `-', meaning the standard input. file1 and file2
should be already sorted in increasing order (not numeri-
cally) on the join fields; unless the -t option is given,
they should be sorted ignoring blanks at the start of the
line, as sort does when given the -b option.
The defaults are: the join field is the first field in
each line; fields in the input are separated by one or
more blanks, with leading blanks on the line ignored;
fields in the output are separated by a space; each output
line consists of the join field, the remaining fields from
file1, then the remaining fields from file2.
OPTIONS
-a file-number
Print a line for each unpairable line in file file-
number (either 1 or 2), in addition to the normal
output.
-e string
Replace empty output fields (those that are missing
in the input) with string.
-1, -j1 field
Join on field field (a positive integer) of file 1.
-2, -j2 field
Join on field field (a positive integer) of file 2.
-j field
Equivalent to -1 field -2 field.
-o field-list...
Construct each output line according to the format
in field-list. Each element in field-list consists
of a file number (either 1 or 2), a period, and a
field number (a positive integer). The elements in
the list are separated by commas or blanks. Multi-
ple field-list arguments can be given after a sin-
gle -o option; the values of all lists given with
-o are concatenated together.
-t char
Use character char as the input and output field
separator.
-v file-number
Print a line for each unpairable line in file file-
number (either 1 or 2), instead of the normal out-
put.
In addition, when GNU join is invoked with exactly one
argument, the following options are recognized:
--help Print a usage message on standard output and exit
successfully.
--version
Print version information on standard output then
exit successfully.
FSF GNU Text Utilities 1
Back to the index