join(1) — Commands
NAME
join − Joins the lines of two files
SYNOPSIS
Current syntax
join [−a file_number|−v file_number] [−e string] [−o number.field,...] [−t character] [−1 field] [−2 field] file1 file2
Obsolescent syntax
[join] [−a number] [−e string] [−j number|field|number field] [−o number.field,...] [−t character] file1 file2
The join command reads file1 and file2 and joins lines in the files that contain common fields, or otherwise according to the options, and writes the results to standard output.
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:
join: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.
OPTIONS
−1 field
Joins on the fieldth field of file1. Fields are decimal integers starting with 1.
−2 field
Joins on the fieldth field of file2. Fields are decimal integers starting with 1.
−a number
Produces an output line for each unpairable line found in file1 if number is 1, or file2 if number is 2. Without −a, join produces output only for lines containing a common field. If both −a 1 and −a 2 are used, all unpairable lines will be output.
−e string
Replaces empty output fields with string.
−j number | field | number field
Joins the two files on field of file number, where number is 1 for file1 or 2 for file2. If you do not specify number, join uses field in each file. Without −j, join uses the first field in each file. The default value for both number and field is 1. (Obsolescent)
If you enter only a 1 or a 2 as an argument to −j, join interprets this argument as the file number (number); integers greater than 2 are interpreted as the field number (field). Therefore, if you want to specify a field number of 2, you must precede this specification with a number argument; otherwise, the join program interprets the 2 as the file number (number).
−o number.field, ...
Produces output lines consisting of the fields specified in one or more number.field arguments, where number is 1 for file1 or 2 for file2, and field is a field number. Multiple −o arguments should be separated with commas.
−t character
Uses character (a single character) as the field separator character in the input and the output. Every appearance of character in a line is significant. The default separator is a space. If you do not specify −t, join also recognizes the tab and newline characters as separators.
With default field separation, the collating sequence is that of sort −b. If you specify −t, the sequence is that of a plain sort. To specify a tab character, enclose it in ” (single quotes).
−v file_number
Produces an output line for each unpairable line in file_number (where file_number is 1 or 2), instead of the default output. If both −v 1 and −v 2 are specified, produces output lines for all unpairable lines.
OPERANDS
file1
file2The pathnames of files to be used as input. If - (hyphen) is specified for either file, standard input is read.
DESCRIPTION
The join field is the field in the input files that join looks at to determine what will be included in the output. One line appears in the output for each identical join field appearing in both file1 and file2. The output line consists of the join field, the rest of the line from file1, then the rest of the line from file2.
Both input files must be sorted according to the collating sequence specified by the LC_COLLATE environment variable, if set, for the fields where they are to be joined (usually the first field in each line).
Fields are normally separated by a space, a tab character, or a newline character. In this case, join treats consecutive separators as one, and discards leading separators. Use the −t option to specify another field separator.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0Successful completion.
>0An error occurred.
EXAMPLES
Note that the vertical alignment shown in these examples may not be consistent with your output.
1.To perform a simple join operation on two files, phonedir and names, whose first fields are the same, enter:
join phonedir names
If phonedir contains the following telephone directory:
Binst 555-6235
Dickerson 555-1842
Eisner 555-1234
Green 555-2240
Hrarii 555-0256
Janatha 555-7358
Lewis 555-3237
Takata 555-5341
Wozni 555-1234
and names is this listing of names and department numbers:
Eisner Dept. 389
Frost Dept. 217
Green Dept. 311
Takata Dept. 454
Wozni Dept. 520
then join phonedir names displays:
Eisner 555-1234 Dept. 389
Green 555-2240 Dept. 311
Takata 555-5341 Dept. 454
Wozni 555-1234 Dept. 520
Each line consists of the join field (the last name), followed by the rest of the line found in phonedir and the rest of the line in names.
2.To display unmatched lines as well as matched lines, enter:
join -a 2 phonedir names
If phonedir contains:
Binst 555-6235
Dickerson 555-1842
Eisner 555-1234
Green 555-2240
Hrarii 555-0256
Janatha 555-7358
Lewis 555-3237
Takata 555-5341
Wozni 555-1234
and names contains:
Eisner Dept. 389
Frost Dept. 217
Green Dept. 311
Takata Dept. 454
Wozni Dept. 520
then join -a 2 phonedir names displays:
Eisner 555-1234 Dept. 389
Frost Dept. 217
Green 555-2240 Dept. 311
Takata 555-5341 Dept. 454
Wozni 555-1234 Dept. 520
This performs the same join operation as in the first example, and also lists the lines of names that have no match in phonedir. It includes Frost’s name and department number in the listing, although there is no entry for Frost in phonedir.
3.To display selected fields, enter:
join -o 2.3,2.1,1.2 phonedir names
This displays the following fields:
Field 3 of names (Department Number)
Field 1 of names (Last Name)
Field 2 of phonedir (Telephone Number)
If phonedir contains:
Binst 555-6235
Dickerson 555-1842
Eisner 555-1234
Green 555-2240
Hrarii 555-0256
Janatha 555-7358
Lewis 555-3237
Takata 555-5341
Wozni 555-1234
and names contains:
Eisner Dept. 389
Frost Dept. 217
Green Dept. 311
Takata Dept. 454
Wozni Dept. 520
then join -o 2.3,2.1,1.2 phonedir names displays:
389 Eisner 555-1234
311 Green 555-2240
454 Takata 555-5341
520 Wozni 555-1234
4.To perform the join operation on a field other than the first, enter:
sort -b -k 2,3 phonedir | join -1 2 - numbers
This combines the lines in phonedir and names, comparing the second field of phonedir to the first field of numbers.
First, this sorts phonedir by the second field because both files must be sorted by their join fields. The output of sort is then piped to join. The - (dash) by itself causes the join command to use this output as its first file. The −1 2 defines the second field of the sorted phonedir as the join field. This is compared to the first field of numbers because its join field is not specified with a −2 option.
If phonedir contains:
Binst 555-6235
Dickerson 555-1842
Eisner 555-1234
Green 555-2240
Hrarii 555-0256
Janatha 555-7358
Lewis 555-3237
Takata 555-5341
Wozni 555-1234
and numbers contains:
555-0256
555-1234
555-5555
555-7358
then sort ... | join ... displays:
555-0256 Hrarii
555-1234 Eisner
555-1234 Wozni
555-7358 Janatha
Each number in numbers is listed with the name listed in phonedir for that number. Note that join lists all the matches for a given field. In this case, join lists both Eisner and Wozni as having the telephone number 555-1234. The number 555-5555 is not listed because it does not appear in phonedir.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of join:
LANG
Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined.
LC_ALL
If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE
Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
SEE ALSO
Commands: awk(1), cmp(1), comm(1), cut(1), diff(1), grep(1), paste(1), sdiff(1), sed(1), sort(1), uniq(1)