Combine CSV files with the same column header

Question

I have several CSV files I'd like to combine by matching column headers but still keep the unmatched columns, for example:

Input file1.csv:

col1,col2,col3,col5
a,b,c,d
d,e,b,g
c,a,d,h

Input file2.csv:

col1,col3,col4,col5
g,d,b,c
o,e,x,h
b,n,w,e

Desired output:

col1,col2,col3,col4,col5
a,b,c,,d
d,e,b,,g
c,a,d,,h
g,,d,b,c
o,,e,x,h
b,,n,w,e

I assume you mean CSV files! CVS is a version control system — Sam Mason
– Sam Mason, Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 11:54
maybe have a look at something like github.com/BurntSushi/xsv for working with csv file directly. either that or import into an RDBMS like Postgres, or maybe something like Pandas in Python — Sam Mason
– Sam Mason, Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 11:57

Fravadona · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-10 17:20:13Z

2

I would use Miller (available here for several OSs):

mlr --csv unsparsify file1.csv file2.csv

col1,col2,col3,col5,col4
a,b,c,d,
d,e,b,g,
c,a,d,h,
g,,d,c,b
o,,e,h,x
b,,n,e,w

remark: The columns are outputted in the order in which they first appear; if need be, you can specify a custom ordering, but you'll need to know the column names in advance.

edited Jan 10, 2023 at 17:20

answered Jan 10, 2023 at 12:22

Fravadona

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1 Comment

Kass Over a year ago

Excellent! Worked excatly as intended, many thanks!

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