Convert a tab-delimited file to use newlines

Question

input.txt (around 30K lines)

RT|367079254|bn|ERTS01065811.1| 38 1 503
RT|367079251|bn|ERTS01065814.1| 56 3 502
RT|367079248|bn|ERTS01065817.1| 52 2 502

output.txt

RT|367079254|bn|ERTS01065811.1|
38
1
503
RT|367079251|bn|ERTS01065814.1|
56
3
502
RT|367079248|bn|ERTS01065817.1|
52
2
502

jpotts18 · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-21 00:13:13Z

27

I think your easiest way to do this is with tr:

tr '\t' '\n' < input.txt > output.txt

That'll turn all the tabs to newlines.

jpotts18

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answered Oct 2, 2012 at 22:01

derobert

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1

Easiest and fastest, too.
– JRFerguson
Oct 2, 2012 at 22:58
1

You should have been awarded this answer, as tr was the best solution. Both sed, and awk, while great tools, are overkill.
– J. M. Becker
Nov 1, 2012 at 14:50

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Cornelius Sicker · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-28 13:44:45Z

8

Sed:

sed -e 'y/\t/\n/' input.txt > output.txt

Awk:

awk 'BEGIN { OFS = "\n" } { $1=$1; print }' input.txt > output.txt

Cornelius Sicker

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answered Oct 2, 2012 at 22:05

Birei

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Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-02 22:13:04Z

0

With printf :

printf '%s\n' $(<FILE)

answered Oct 2, 2012 at 22:13

Gilles Quénot

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I wonder why this was down-voted.
– Gilles Quénot
Oct 2, 2012 at 22:41
Possibly because this will split on spaces not just tabs.
– jordanm
Oct 3, 2012 at 3:43

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3 Answers 3