how to merge specific text files in a folder?

Question

I have several text files in a single folder, and I would like to merge only certain sequential files into one long one (where one file comes immediately after the next).

For example, I want to merge all files starting with test (so test1.txt, test2.txt, test3.txt, and so on) into one file named file.out, like so:

Stuff from test1
Stuff from test2
...
Stuff from testN

I tried cat * > file.out, but that merges everything, which is not what I want. How can I do this?

Possible duplicate of How can I merge files on a line by line basis? — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Jan 15 '17 at 06:16
If all of your files have a prefix, you can use cat test* > out.file. — Kaz Wolfe, Jan 15 '17 at 06:17
@Serg That question seems to be about merging lines inside files, not about merging whole files. — Jacob Vlijm, Jan 15 '17 at 08:16
@Nikhil Kalghatgi not ver clear though. "like test1.txt test2.txt etc" needs to be very specific to define what files to merge in what order. — Jacob Vlijm, Jan 15 '17 at 08:17
@JacobVlijm Well, what text files are made out of ? Lines. And all solutions provided on that question are about merging whole files, so I don't see where you got the idea about merging lines alone. Of course, I'll wait for OP to clarify and if it's not what they need , but until then my vote will remain. — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Jan 15 '17 at 09:34
@Serg merging abc + def into adbecf is quite different from abcdef. Exactly like the accepted answer in the linked dup reflects (the first output). This question asks for the second output. — Jacob Vlijm, Jan 15 '17 at 09:56
@JacobVlijm well, why don't we wait for OP to clarify. If it's not what they want , i.e. "merge" files, I'll remove my vote. Otherwise, it stays. As it is, the question can be closed for being unclear ,too. — Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy, Jan 15 '17 at 09:59
@KazWolfe cat test* > out.file worked. this is what i wanted. Thanks a lot — Nikhil Kalghatgi, Jan 15 '17 at 15:19

Akhil Varma · Answer 1 · 2017-01-15T07:21:40.797

4

ways of using wildcards for cat

cat test[1-2].txt>out.txt  //matches any character in the set
cat test[!34].txt>out.txt  //matches any character not in the set
cat test?.txt>out.txt  //for a single character
cat test*>out.txt    // for any strings

edited Jan 15 '17 at 07:21

answered Jan 15 '17 at 07:09

Akhil Varma

391

how to merge specific text files in a folder?

1 Answers1