假设你的文件很规律,每4行一个循环:
awk '
{
if (NR % 4 == 1) {arr[1]=arr[1]" "$1}
else if (NR % 4 == 2) { arr[2]=arr[2]" "$1}
else if (NR % 4 == 3) {arr[3]=arr[3]" "$1}
else {arr[4]=arr[4]" "$1}
}
END{
printf ("%-s\n %-s\n %-s\n %-s\n",arr[1],arr[2],arr[3],arr[4])
}' a.txt | column -t
[1] [2] [3] [4]
23 78 56 19
56 76 34 16
89 65 41 67
用递归函数也可以,不过比较复杂一些