Question

In a file I am reformatting, I would like to put the last column as the first and have the rest of the columns stay the same. I could do this easily in python, but thought I’d learn some awk this evening.

Here is an example:

(before)

polk_describes:1 diatribe_that:1 #label#:negative

(after)

#label#:negative polk_describes:1 diatribe_that:1

However, there are many more than 3 columns. In fact the column count varies.

Thanks,

SetJmp

Answer 1

You can make assignments to fields, and thus clear them:

awk '{ lastfield = $NF; $NF = ""; print lastfield " " $0 }'