Split a Column in multiple columns according to a specific string according to irregular number of items between each string

Question

I have a file with an unique column and I would like to split this column in multiple columns according to a specific string (chr). The number of Items between the first string and the second, the secon and the third, the n and the m... is not regular.

Input looks like this:

chr10:127293562-127293909
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)
CPEB4(Hs/Mm)
CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)
DAZAP1(Hs/Mm)
ENOX1(Hs/Mm)
FMR1(Hs/Mm)
chr11:49214073-49214804
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)
BRUNOL5(Hs/Mm)
CPEB2(Hs/Mm)
CPEB4(Hs/Mm)
CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)
HNRNPC(Hs/Mm)
HNRNPCL1(Hs/Mm)
HNRNPH1(Hs/Mm)
HuR(Hs/Mm)
MBNL1(Hs/Mm)
NOVA1(Hs/Mm)
chr11:49854587-49855127
A1CF(Hs/Mm)
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)

The output should look like this:

chr10:127293562-127293909  chr11:49214073-49214804  chr11:498547-498551
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)             BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)           A1CF(Hs/Mm)
CPEB4(Hs/Mm)               BRUNOL5(Hs/Mm)           BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)
CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)              CPEB2(Hs/Mm)
DAZAP1(Hs/Mm)              CPEB4(Hs/Mm)    
ENOX1(Hs/Mm)               CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)
FMR1(Hs/Mm)                HNRNPC(Hs/Mm)
                           HNRNPCL1(Hs/Mm)
                           HNRNPH1(Hs/Mm)
                           HuR(Hs/Mm)
                           MBNL1(Hs/Mm)
                           NOVA1(Hs/Mm)

Answer 1

$ csplit -zsf file -n 1 ip.txt /^chr/ {*} ; paste file* | column -nt
chr10:127293562-127293909  chr11:49214073-49214804  chr11:49854587-49855127
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)             BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)           A1CF(Hs/Mm)
CPEB4(Hs/Mm)               BRUNOL5(Hs/Mm)           BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)
CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)              CPEB2(Hs/Mm)             
DAZAP1(Hs/Mm)              CPEB4(Hs/Mm)             
ENOX1(Hs/Mm)               CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)            
FMR1(Hs/Mm)                HNRNPC(Hs/Mm)            
                           HNRNPCL1(Hs/Mm)          
                           HNRNPH1(Hs/Mm)           
                           HuR(Hs/Mm)               
                           MBNL1(Hs/Mm)             
                           NOVA1(Hs/Mm)             

• csplit used to split files based on a pattern
  • -z option to delete empty files (for cases like pattern matching first line itself)
  • -s suppress log output
  • -f file -n 1 output files name start with file and single digit suffix
  • ip.txt is input file, /^chr/ is pattern to work on
  • {*} as many splits as possible
• paste is then used to concatenate the split files column wise
• column -nt used to style the output from paste, -n prevents default behavior of column to merge adjacent delimiters and a GNU extension

Answer 2

With perl without any pipe :

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict; use warnings;

my $c = -1; my $arr = [];

while (<>) {
    if (/^chr/) {$c++};
    chomp;
    push(@{ $arr->[$c] }, $_);
}

foreach my $i (0...scalar(@{ $arr->[1] }) -1) {
    printf("%-30s %s\n", $arr->[0]->[$i], $arr->[1]->[$i]);
}

OUTPUT

chr10:127293562-127293909      chr11:49214073-49214804
BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)                 BRUNOL4(Hs/Mm)
CPEB4(Hs/Mm)                   BRUNOL5(Hs/Mm)
CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)                  CPEB2(Hs/Mm)
DAZAP1(Hs/Mm)                  CPEB4(Hs/Mm)
ENOX1(Hs/Mm)                   CUG-BP(Hs/Mm)
FMR1(Hs/Mm)                    HNRNPC(Hs/Mm)