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SUB: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE - I
SHORT EXTERNAL QUESTIONS
Q

Define Filters

A filter is any command that gets its input from

the standard input stream, manipulates the input,
and sends the result to the standard output
stream.
Some filters can receive data directly from a file.
Filters work naturally with pipes.
A filter can be used on the left of a pipe, between
two pipes, and on the right of a pipe.
There are following filters are available : head
tail
cut
paste
sort
uniq
tr

Explain head command with example.

The head command copies N (10 by default)

lines from the beginning of one or more files to
standard output.
The option is used to specify the number of
lines. If the number of lines is larger than the
total number of lines in the file, the total file is
used.
If no files are specified, it gets the lines from standard input.
Example 1: Display first 2 line of file Hello.txt
$ head -2 hello.txt
Hi
Good Morning
Example 2: Display first 2 line of file Hello.txt and Sample.txt
$ head -2 hello.txt sample.txt
== > hello.txt< ==
Hi
Good Morning

Explain tail command with example.

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SHORT EXTERNAL QUESTIONS
A

The tail command outputs the data from the

end of the file.
If the option start with + sign, tail skip N-1
line before it begins to output lines from the
file and continues until it gets to the end of file.
If it start with - sign, such as -25, it outputs
the last number of lines specified in the option.
If there are no line options, the default is the last 10 lines.
OPTION

Here

CODE

DESCRIPTION

Count from beginning

+N

Skip N-1 line, copies rest to EOF.

Count from end

-N

Copies last N lines.

Count by lines

-l

Count by line.

Count by characters

-c

Counts by character.

Count by block

-b

Count by disk block.

Reverse order

-r

Output in reverse order.

Example 1: Display last 10 lines

$ tail example.txt
Example 2: Display last 2 lines
$ tail -2 example.txt
dedicated hosting server
cloud servers
Example 3: Display the character from the 8 bytes
$ tail c+8 example.txt
dedicated hosting server
cloud servers
Example 4: Display line from 8 to 12 from the file. OR Extract line from middle of file.
$ head -12 example.txt | tail +z
head command extract first 12 line and output of it pipe to the tail command to extract line

from 8 to end of.

Explain cut command with example.

Use to extract one or more columns of data

from standard input oThe r one or more files.
Similar to head and tail command, but cut
command cut files vertically whereas head
and tail cut files horizontally.
Because it works on columns, we need a data

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SHORT EXTERNAL QUESTIONS
file that organizes data with several related elements on each line.
To demonstrate the use of cut commands first create a file test.txt, with comma as delimiter.
$ cat test.txt
Rakesh,Father,35,Manager
Niti,Mother,30,Group Lead
Shlok,Son,5,Student
The first column indicates name, second relationship, the third being the age, and the last
one is their profession.
Example 1: Select Column of Characters and displays 2nd character from each line of a file
test.txt
$ cut -c2 test.txt
a
i
h
As seen above, the characters a, i, h are the second character from each line of the test.txt file.
Example 2: Select Column of Characters using Range and extracts first 3 characters of each line
from a file called test.txt
Range of characters can also be extracted from a file by specifying start and end position
delimited with -.
$ cut -c1-3 test.txt
Rak
Nit
Shl
Example 3: Select Column of Characters using either Start or End Position and extracts from
3rd character to end of each line from test.txt file.
$ cut -c3- test.txt
kesh,Father,35,Manager
ti,Mother,30,Group Lead

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lok,Son,5,Student
Example 4: Select a Specific Field from a File
Instead of selecting x number of characters, if you like to extract a whole field, you can
combine option -f and -d. The option -f specifies which field you want to extract, and the
option -d specifies what is the field delimiter that is used in the input file.
The following example displays only first field of each lines from /etc/passwd file using the
field delimiter : (colon). In this case, the 1st field is the username. The file
To get 2 fields, say Name and Age from file1.
$ cut -d, -f 1,3 file1
Rakesh,35
Niti,30
Shlok,5
Giving 1,3 means to retrieve the first and third fields which happens to be name and age
respectively.
Example 5: To retrieve all the fields except the name field. i.e, to retrieve from field 2 to field 4:
$ cut -d, -f 2- file1
Father,35,Manager
Mother,30,Group Lead
Son,5,Student
Similar to the last result, "2-" means from the second field till the end which is the 4th field.
Whenever the beginning of the range is not specified, it defaults to 1, similarly when the end of
the range is not given, it defaults to the last field. The same result could have been achieved
using the option "2-4" as well.

Explain paste command with example.

Paste combines the first line of the first file with

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the first line of the second file and writes the result to standard output.
It writes a tab between the columns and a new line character at the end of the last column. It
continues with the next two lines.
Create the following three files to practice the examples:
$ cat file1
Unix
Linux
Windows

$ cat file2
Dedicated server
Virtual server

$ cat file3
Hosting
Machine

Example 1: Merging files in parallel

By default, the paste command merges the files in parallel. The paste command writes
corresponding lines from the files as a tab delimited on the terminal.
$ paste file1 file2
Unix Dedicated server
Linux Virtual server
Windows
Example 2: Specifying the delimiter
Paste command uses the tab delimiter by default for merging the files. You can change the
delimiter to any other character by using the -d option.
$ paste -d"|" file1 file2
Unix|Dedicated server
Linux|Virtual server
Windows|
In the above example, pipe delimiter is specified.
Example 3: Specifying multiple delimiters.
Multiple delimiters come in handy when you want to merge more than two files with different
delimiters. For example I want to merge file1, file2 with pipe delimiter and file2, file3 with comma
delimiter. In this case multiple delimiters will be helpful.
$ paste -d"|," file1 file2 file3
Unix|Dedicated server,Hosting
Linux|Virtual server,Machine
Windows|,Operating system

Explain sort command with example.

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A

Used to sort a file, arranging the records in

a particular order.
By default, the sort command sorts file
assuming the contents are ASCII. Using
options in sort command, it can also be
used to sort numerically.
Let us consider a file with the following contents:
Example 1: Sort simply the file in alphabetical order:
$ sort file
AIX
HPUX
Linux
Linux
Solaris
Unix
Print unique record using (-u) option.
Example 2: Sort the file and display only unique record.
$ sort -u file
AIX
HPUX
Linux
Solaris
Unix
The duplicate 'Linux' record got removed. '-u' option removes all the duplicate records in the file.
Even if the file have had 10 'Linux' records, with -u option, only the first record is retained.
Sort File with numbers: Let us consider a file with numbers:
File

File 2

$ cat file

$ cat file2

20

25

19

18

49

48

200

200

Sort Numerically using (-n) and in reverse using (-r) option

Sorting in ASCENDING order

Sorting in DESCENDING order

$ sort n file

$ sort -nr file

200

19

49

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SUB: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE - I
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20

20

49

19

200

Display Unique record using (-u) option

Example 4: Sort the multiple numeric file OR Sort , Merge and Remove duplicates from file.
Sort Multiple files

Sort, Merge and Remove duplicates

$ sort n file, file2

$ sort -nu file

18

18

19

19

20

20

25

25

48

48

49

49

200

200
200

File with multiple fields and delimiter: Let us consider a file with delimiter ,.
By default delimiter is space.
File
$ cat file
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307
SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678
RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434
VATSHAL,49,BARODA,BCA,258783
AADI,200,SURAT,BCA,264416

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SUB: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE - I
SHORT EXTERNAL QUESTIONS
Sorting on Primary filed using (-k) key option:
Example 5: Sort the record in the file on primary field.
Sorting in ASCENDING order

Sorting in DESCENDING order

Sorting on NUMERIC Field

$ sort file

$ sort -r file

$ sort t, k2n,2 file

OR
$ sort -t"," -k1,1 file
AADI,200,SURAT,BCA,264416
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307
RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434

VATSHAL,49,BARODA,BCA,258783
SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678
RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307
AADI,200,SURAT,BCA,264416

RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434
SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307
VATSHAL,49,BARODA,BCA,258783
AADI,200,SURAT,BCA,264416
To reverser order.

SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678

$ sort t ,-k2nr,2 file

VATSHAL,49,BARODA,BCA,258783

'-t' option is used to provide the delimiter in case of files with delimiter.
'-k' is used to specify the keys on the basis of which the sorting has to be done.
The format of '-k' is : '-km,n'
where m is the starting key and n is the ending key.
In our case, since the sorting is on the 1st field alone, we speciy '1,1'.
Similarly, if the sorting is to be done on the basis of first 3 fields, it will be: '-k 1,3'.
if the sorting is to be done 2 and 4 field, it will be: '-k 2, -k4'.
-k2,2 specifies sorting on the key starting and ending with column 2.
If -k2 is used instead, the sort key would begin at column 2 and extend to the end of the line,
spanning all the fields in between.
Sorting on Secondary filed using (-k) key option:
Sorting in ASCENDING order
$ sort -t"," k 3,3 k 2n,2 file

Example 6: Sort the record in the file on

3 field as primary field & 2 field as
secondary key.

SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678
VATSHAL,49,BARODA,BCA,258783
RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307
AADI,200,SURAT,BCA,264416

NOTE: Write answer as per marks. List out all option and give 2 to 3 example.

Explain uniq command with example.

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A

Used to suppress the duplicate lines from a file.

It discards all the successive identical lines except one from the input and writes the output.
Syntax :

uniq

[option]

filename

OPTION

MEANING

Select only unique lines.

Select duplicate lines.

Counting frequency of occurrences.

Suppress duplicate line

Example 1: Suppress duplicate lines from file
The default behaviour of the uniq command is to suppress the duplicate line. Note that, you
have to pass sorted input to the uniq, as it compares only successive lines.
File

Suppress duplicate line

$ cat file
Unix operating system

$ uniq file
unix operating system

unix operating system

unix dedicated server

unix dedicated server

linux dedicated server

linux dedicated server

Count of Lines
The -c option is used to find how many times each line occurs in the file. It prefixes each line
with the count.
File

Suppress duplicate line

$ cat file
Unix operating system

$ uniq c file
2 unix operating system

unix operating system

1 unix dedicated server

unix dedicated server

1 linux dedicated server

linux dedicated server

Display only duplicate lines
You can print only the lines that occur more than once in a file using the -d option
File

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SUB: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE - I
SHORT EXTERNAL QUESTIONS
$ cat file
Unix operating system

$ uniq d file
unix operating system

unix operating system

unix dedicated server
linux dedicated server

Skip the N field in comparison

The -f option is used to skip the first N columns in comparison. Here the fields are delimited
by the space character.
In the example the uniq command, just compares the last fields. For the first two lines, the
last field contains the string "system". Uniq prints the first line and skips the second.
Similarly it prints the third line and skips the fourth line.
File

Suppress duplicate line

$ cat file
Unix operating system

$ uniq f2 file
unix operating system

unix operating system

unix dedicated server

unix dedicated server

linux dedicated server

Explain tr command with example.

Used to replaces each character on a userspecified

set

of

characters

with

corresponding character in a second set.

It handling either entire lines or columns.
It takes input only from standard input ; it
doesnt take a filename as arguments.
It translates each characters in string1 to its mapped counterpart in string2.
The first character in the first string is replaced with the first character in the second
expression and similarly for other characters.
Translating Characters

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Example 1: Convert lower case to upper case.
$ cat test
Thegeekstuff
$ tr abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
OR
$ tr [a-z] [A-Z]
THEGEEKSTUFF

Example 2: Convert delimiter | to , and print only first 3 record.

File
$ cat file
OM|20|SURAT|BCA|258307|11/08/1997
SAI|19|BARDOLI|BBA|245678|10/12/1994
RAM|5|NAVSARI|BBA|222434|10/11/1991
VATSHAL|49|BARODA|BCA|258783|01/04/1992
AADI|200|SURAT|BCA|264416|07/02/1990

Translating and print only 3 record.

$ tr |/ ,- | head -3
OM,20,SURAT,BCA,258307,11-08-1997
SAI,19,BARDOLI,BBA,245678,10-12-1994
RAM,5,NAVSARI,BBA,222434,10-11-1991

Deleting Character using option (-d)

Example 2: Delete character t
$ echo "the geek stuff" | tr -d 't'
he geek suff
Replace non-matching characters using option (-c) .
The -c option is used to replace the non-matching characters with another set of characters.

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$ echo "unix" | tr -c "u" "a"
uaaa
Squeezing characters using option (-s)
You can squeeze more than one occurrence of continuous characters with single occurrence.
The following example squeezes two or more successive blank spaces into a single space.
$ echo "linux

server" | tr -s " "

linux server

Explain BC(Basic Calculator) Command in detail.

bc command turns UNIX into a calculator.

To terminate it, we key ctrl+d.
scale expression sets the number of digits after
the decimal point.
The base of the calculation can be changed by
setting the input base (ibase) and the output
base (obase).
When invoked without arguments, the input has to be keyed in , each line terminate.
$ bc
12 + 5
Display valued after completion
17 <ctrl + d>
$
We can also use bc to perform the calculation together
12 * 12 ; 2^3
144
8
When we divide two number, output will be truncated
9 /5
1
We have to set scale to the number of digits of precision before we perform division
$ bc
Scale = 2
27/7
2.42
# actual result is 2.42857 but we set scale = 2
bc comes useful when converting numbers from one base to the others using ibase (input
base) . It is useful when setting IP address in network , we need to convert binary number to
decimal.
Ibase=2
11001010
202
The reverse is also possible using obase

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obase=2
202
11001010
bc can also used with variables that retain their values until you exit the program.
bc support single lowercase letters.
x=3;y=4;z=5;
P=x+y+z
P
12

Explain touch command in detail.

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