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JOIN(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual JOIN(1P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on
Linux.

NAME
join - relational database operator

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

DESCRIPTION
The join utility shall perform an equality join on the files file1 and file2. The joined files shall be written to the
standard output.

The join field is a field in each file on which the files are compared. The join utility shall write one line in the
output for each pair of lines in file1 and file2 that have identical join fields. The output line by default shall con-
sist of the join field, then the remaining fields from file1, then the remaining fields from file2. This format can be
changed by using the -o option (see below). The -a option can be used to add unmatched lines to the output. The -v
option can be used to output only unmatched lines.

The files file1 and file2 shall be ordered in the collating sequence of sort -b on the fields on which they shall be
joined, by default the first in each line. All selected output shall be written in the same collating sequence.

The default input field separators shall be <blank>s. In this case, multiple separators shall count as one field separa-
tor, and leading separators shall be ignored. The default output field separator shall be a <space>.

The field separator and collating sequence can be changed by using the -t option (see below).

If the same key appears more than once in either file, all combinations of the set of remaining fields in file1 and the
set of remaining fields in file2 are output in the order of the lines encountered.

If the input files are not in the appropriate collating sequence, the results are unspecified.

OPTIONS
The join utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax
Guidelines.

The following options shall be supported:

-a file_number

Produce a line for each unpairable line in file file_number, where file_number is 1 or 2, in addition to the
default output. If both -a1 and -a2 are specified, all unpairable lines shall be output.

-e string
Replace empty output fields in the list selected by -o with the string string.

-o list
Construct the output line to comprise the fields specified in list, each element of which shall have one of the
following two forms:

1. file_number.field, where file_number is a file number and field is a decimal integer field number

2. 0 (zero), representing the join field

The elements of list shall be either comma-separated or <blank>-separated, as specified in Guideline 8 of the Base Defi-
nitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. The fields specified by list shall be
written for all selected output lines. Fields selected by list that do not appear in the input shall be treated as empty
output fields. (See the -e option.) Only specifically requested fields shall be written. The application shall ensure
that list is a single command line argument.

-t char
Use character char as a separator, for both input and output. Every appearance of char in a line shall be signif-
icant. When this option is specified, the collating sequence shall be the same as sort without the -b option.

-v file_number

Instead of the default output, produce a line only for each unpairable line in file_number, where file_number is 1
or 2. If both -v1 and -v2 are specified, all unpairable lines shall be output.

-1 field
Join on the fieldth field of file 1. Fields are decimal integers starting with 1.

-2 field
Join on the fieldth field of file 2. Fields are decimal integers starting with 1.

OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:

file1, file2
A pathname of a file to be joined. If either of the file1 or file2 operands is '-', the standard input shall be
used in its place.

STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if the file1 or file2 operand is '-' . See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of join:

LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of international-
ization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_COLLATE

Determine the locale of the collating sequence join expects to have been used when the input files were sorted.

LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-
byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to stan-
dard error.

NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.

STDOUT
The join utility output shall be a concatenation of selected character fields. When the -o option is not specified, the
output shall be:

"%s%s%s\n", <join field>, <other file1 fields>,
<other file2 fields>

If the join field is not the first field in a file, the <other file fields> for that file shall be:

When the -o option is specified, the output format shall be:

"%s\n", <concatenation of fields>

where the concatenation of fields is described by the -o option, above.

For either format, each field (except the last) shall be written with its trailing separator character. If the separator
is the default ( <blank>s), a single <space> shall be written after each field (except the last).

STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.

EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:

0 All input files were output successfully.

>0 An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.

The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
Pathnames consisting of numeric digits or of the form string.string should not be specified directly following the -o
list.

EXAMPLES
The -o 0 field essentially selects the union of the join fields. For example, given file phone:

!Name Phone Number
Don +1 123-456-7890
Hal +1 234-567-8901
Yasushi +2 345-678-9012

and file fax:

!Name Fax Number
Don +1 123-456-7899
Keith +1 456-789-0122
Yasushi +2 345-678-9011

(where the large expanses of white space are meant to each represent a single <tab>), the command:

join -t "<tab>" -a 1 -a 2 -e '(unknown)' -o 0,1.2,2.2 phone fax

would produce:

!Name Phone Number Fax Number
Don +1 123-456-7890 +1 123-456-7899
Hal +1 234-567-8901 (unknown)
Keith (unknown) +1 456-789-0122
Yasushi +2 345-678-9012 +2 345-678-9011

Multiple instances of the same key will produce combinatorial results. The following:

fa:
a x
a y
a z
fb:
a p

will produce:

a x p
a y p
a z p

And the following:

fa:
a b c
a d e
fb:
a w x
a y z
a o p

will produce:

a b c w x
a b c y z
a b c o p
a d e w x
a d e y z
a d e o p

RATIONALE
The -e option is only effective when used with -o because, unless specific fields are identified using -o, join is not
aware of what fields might be empty. The exception to this is the join field, but identifying an empty join field with
the -e string is not historical practice and some scripts might break if this were changed.

The 0 field in the -o list was adopted from the Tenth Edition version of join to satisfy international objections that
the join in the base documents does not support the "full join" or "outer join" described in relational database litera-
ture. Although it has been possible to include a join field in the output (by default, or by field number using -o), the
join field could not be included for an unpaired line selected by -a. The -o 0 field essentially selects the union of the
join fields.

This sort of outer join was not possible with the join commands in the base documents. The -o 0 field was chosen because
it is an upwards-compatible change for applications. An alternative was considered: have the join field represent the
union of the fields in the files (where they are identical for matched lines, and one or both are null for unmatched
lines). This was not adopted because it would break some historical applications.

The ability to specify file2 as - is not historical practice; it was added for completeness.

The -v option is not historical practice, but was considered necessary because it permitted the writing of only those
lines that do not match on the join field, as opposed to the -a option, which prints both lines that do and do not match.
This additional facility is parallel with the -v option of grep.

Some historical implementations have been encountered where a blank line in one of the input files was considered to be
the end of the file; the description in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not cite this as an allowable case.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.