Question

In awk, how can I do this:

Input:

1  a  f  1  12  v  
2  b  g  2  10  w  
3  c  h  3  19  x  
4  d  i  4  15  y  
5  e  j  5  11  z  

Desired output, by sorting numerical value at $5:

1  a  f  2  10  w  
2  b  g  5  11  z  
3  c  h  1  12  v  
4  d  i  4  15  y  
5  e  j  3  19  x  

Note that the sorting should only affecting $4, $5, and $6 (based on value of $5), in which the previous part of table remains intact.

Answer 1

This could be done in multiple steps with the help of paste:

$ gawk '{print $1, $2, $3}' in.txt > a.txt
$ gawk '{print $4, $5, $6}' in.txt | sort -k 2 -n b.txt > b.txt
$ paste -d' ' a.txt b.txt
1 a f 2 10 w
2 b g 5 11 z
3 c h 1 12 v
4 d i 4 15 y
5 e j 3 19 x