How to select multiple columns which are not next to each other? - unix

Question

I have a dataset which I am trying to select the first 10 columns from, and the last 27 columns from (from the 125th column onwards to the final 152nd column).
awk 'BEGIN{FS="\t"} { printf $1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10; for(i=125; i<=NF; ++i) printf $i""FS; print ""}' Bigdata.txt > Smalldata.txt
With trying this code it gives me the first 12 columns (with their data) and all the headers for all 152 columns from my original big data file. How do I select both columns 1-10 and 125-152 to go into a new file? I am new to linux and any guidence would be appreciated.

Answer 1

don't reinvent the wheel, if you already know the number of columns cut is the tool for this task.
$ cut -f1-10,125-152 bigdata
tab is the default delimiter.
If you don't know the number of columns, awk comes to the rescue!
$ cut -f1-10,$(awk '{print NF-27"-"NF; exit}' file) file
awk will print the end range by reading the first line of the file.

Answer 2

Using the KISS principle
awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="\t"}
{ c=""; for(i=1;i<=10;++i) { printf c $i; c=OFS}
for(i=NF-27;i<=NF;++i) { printf c $i }
printf ORS }' file

Answer 3

Could you please try following, since no samples produced so couldn't test it. You need NOT to manually write 1...10 field values you could use a loop for that too.
awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="\t"}{for(i=1;i<=10;i++){printf("%s%s",$i,OFS)};for(i=(NF-27);i<=NF;i++){printf("%s%s",$i,i==NF?ORS:OFS)}}' Input_file > output_file
Also you need NOT to worry about headers here, since we are simply printing the lines and no logic specifically applied for lines so no need to add any specific entry for 1st line or so.
EDIT: 1 more point here seems you meant that different column values(in different ranges) should come in single line(for a single line from Input) if this is the case then my above code should handle it, since I am printing spaces as separator for their values and printing a new only when their last field's value is printed, by this each line from Input_file fields will be on same line(as Input_file's entry).
Explanation: Adding detailed explanation here.
awk ' ##Starting awk program here.
BEGIN{ ##Starting BEGIN section here, which will be executed before Input_file is getting read.
FS=OFS="\t" ##Setting FS and OFS as TAB here.
} ##Closing BEGIN section here for this awk code.
{ ##Starting a new BLOCK which will be executed when Input_file is being read.
for(i=1;i<=10;i++){ ##Running a for loop which will run 10 times from i=1 to i=10 value.
printf("%s%s",$i,OFS) ##Printing value of specific field with OFS value.
} ##Closing for loop BLOCK here.
for(i=(NF-27);i<=NF;i++){ ##Starting a for loop which will run for 27 last fields only as per OP requirements.
printf("%s%s",$i,i==NF?ORS:OFS) ##Printing field value and checking condition i==NF, if field is last field of line print new line else print space.
} ##Closing block for, for loop now.
}' Input_file > output_file ##Mentioning Input_file name here, whose output is going into output_file.