.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% .\" .\" @(#)join.1 6.9 (Berkeley) 02/19/92 .\" .Dd .Dt JOIN 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm join .Nd relational database operator .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm join .Oo .Fl a Ar file_number | Fl v Ar file_number .Oc .Op Fl e Ar string .Op Fl j Ar file_number field .Op Fl o Ar list .Bk -words .Ek .Op Fl t Ar char .Op Fl \&1 Ar field .Op Fl \&2 Ar field .Ar file1 .Ar file2 .Sh DESCRIPTION The join utility performs an ``equality join'' on the specified files and writes the result to the standard output. The ``join field'' is the field in each file by which the files are compared. The first field in each line is used by default. There is one line in the output for each pair of lines in .Ar file1 and .Ar file2 which have identical join fields. Each output line consists of the join field, the remaining fields from .Ar file1 and then the remaining fields from .Ar file2 . .Pp The default field separators are tab and space characters. In this case, multiple tabs and spaces count as a single field separator, and leading tabs and spaces are ignored. The default output field separator is a single space character. .Pp Many of the options use file and field numbers. Both file numbers and field numbers are 1 based, i.e. the first file on the command line is file number 1 and the first field is field number 1. The following options are available: .Bl -tag -width Fl .It Fl a Ar file_number In addition to the default output, produce a line for each unpairable line in file .Ar file_number . .It Fl e Ar string Replace empty output fields with .Ar string . .It Fl o Ar list The .Fl o option specifies the fields that will be output from each file for each line with matching join fields. Each element of .Ar list has the form .Ql file_number.field , where .Ar file_number is a file number and .Ar field is a field number. The elements of list must be either comma (``,'') or whitespace separated. (The latter requires quoting to protect it from the shell, or, a simpler approach is to use multiple .Fl o options.) .It Fl t Ar char Use character .Ar char as a field delimiter for both input and output. Every occurrence of .Ar char in a line is significant. .It Fl v Ar file_number Do not display the default output, but display a line for each unpairable line in file .Ar file_number . The options .Fl v Ar 1 and .Fl v Ar 2 may be specified at the same time. .It Fl 1 Ar field Join on the .Ar field Ns 'th field of file 1. .It Fl 2 Ar field Join on the .Ar field Ns 'th field of file 2. .El .Pp When the default field delimiter characters are used, the files to be joined should be ordered in the collating sequence of .Xr sort 1 , using the .Fl b option, on the fields on which they are to be joined, otherwise .Nm join may not report all field matches. When the field delimiter characters are specified by the .Fl t option, the collating sequence should be the same as .Xr sort without the .Fl b option. .Pp If one of the arguments .Ar file1 or .Ar file2 is ``-'', the standard input is used. .Pp The .Nm join utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. .Sh COMPATIBILITY For compatibility with historic versions of .Nm join , the following options are available: .Bl -tag -width Fl .It Fl a In addition to the default output, produce a line for each unpairable line in both file 1 and file 2. .It Fl j1 Ar field Join on the .Ar field Ns 'th field of file 1. .It Fl j2 Ar field Join on the .Ar field Ns 'th field of file 2. .It Fl j Ar field Join on the .Ar field Ns 'th field of both file 1 and file 2. .It Fl o Ar list ... Historical implementations of .Nm join permitted multiple arguments to the .Fl o option. These arguments were of the form ``file_number.field_number'' as described for the current .Fl o option. This has obvious difficulties in the presence of files named ``1.2''. .El .Pp These options are available only so historic shellscripts don't require modification and should not be used. .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm join command is expected to be .St -p1003.2 compatible. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr awk 1 , .Xr comm 1 , .Xr paste 1 , .Xr sort 1 , .Xr uniq 1