JOIN(1) | General Commands Manual | JOIN(1)

# NAME

`join` —
relational database operator

# SYNOPSIS

`join` | [`-a` file_number | `-v` file_number] [`-e` string] [`-j` file_number field] [`-o` list] [`-t` char] [`-1` field] [`-2` field] file1 file2

# DESCRIPTION

The join utility performs an ``equality join'' on the specified files and writes the result to the standard output. The ``join field'' is the field in each file by which the files are compared. The first field in each line is used by default. There is one line in the output for each pair of lines in file1 and file2 which have identical join fields. Each output line consists of the join field, the remaining fields from file1 and then the remaining fields from file2.

The default field separators are tab and space characters. In this case, multiple tabs and spaces count as a single field separator, and leading tabs and spaces are ignored. The default output field separator is a single space character.

Many of the options use file and field numbers. Both file numbers and field numbers are 1 based, i.e. the first file on the command line is file number 1 and the first field is field number 1. The following options are available:

`-a` file_number
  In addition to the default output, produce a line for each unpairable line in file file_number. (The argument to `-a` must not be preceded by a space; see the COMPATIBILITY section.)
`-e` string
  Replace empty output fields with string.
`-o` list
  The `-o` option specifies the fields that will be output from each file for each line with matching join fields. Each element of list has the form ‘`file_number.field`’, where file_number is a file number and field is a field number. The elements of list must be either comma (``,'') or whitespace separated. (The latter requires quoting to protect it from the shell, or, a simpler approach is to use multiple `-o` options.)
`-t` char
  Use character char as a field delimiter for both input and output. Every occurrence of char in a line is significant.
`-v` file_number
  Do not display the default output, but display a line for each unpairable line in file file_number. The options `-v` 1 and `-v` 2 may be specified at the same time.
`-1` field
  Join on the field'th field of file 1.
`-2` field
  Join on the field'th field of file 2.

When the default field delimiter characters are used, the files to be joined should be ordered in the collating sequence of sort(1), using the `-b` option, on the fields on which they are to be joined, otherwise `join` may not report all field matches. When the field delimiter characters are specified by the `-t` option, the collating sequence should be the same as sort(1) without the `-b` option.

If one of the arguments file1 or file2 is ``-'', the standard input is used.

# EXIT STATUS

The `join` utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

# COMPATIBILITY

For compatibility with historic versions of `join`, the following options are available:

`-a`
  In addition to the default output, produce a line for each unpairable line in both file 1 and file 2. (To distinguish between this and `-a` file_number, `join` currently requires that the latter not include any white space.)
`-j1` field
  Join on the field'th field of file 1.
`-j2` field
  Join on the field'th field of file 2.
`-j` field
  Join on the field'th field of both file 1 and file 2.
`-o` list ...
  Historical implementations of `join` permitted multiple arguments to the `-o` option. These arguments were of the form ``file_number.field_number'' as described for the current `-o` option. This has obvious difficulties in the presence of files named ``1.2''.

These options are available only so historic shell scripts don't require modification and should not be used.

# SEE ALSO

awk(1), comm(1), paste(1), sort(1), uniq(1)

# STANDARDS

The `join` command is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

April 28, 1995 | NetBSD 10.1