sorting text file by order listed in other file

Question

I would need to sort space separated text file which looks something like this:

rs4771122 1.983 0.998 1.998 1.990 0.998 0.988 1.000 1.984 0.001 1.998 1.996  
rs1333026 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000  
rs11847697 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000  
rs10150332 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 1.000 0.975 0.000 1.000  
etc.

It should be sorted by first column according to the order listed in separate text file containing all the values in first column. Second file looks like this:

rs1333026  
rs11847697  
rs4771122  
rs10150332
etc.

And output should look like this:

rs1333026 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000  
rs11847697 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000  
rs4771122 1.983 0.998 1.998 1.990 0.998 0.988 1.000 1.984 0.001 1.998 1.996  
rs10150332 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 1.000 0.975 0.000 1.000
etc.

Is there a way to use sort command similarly to grep with -f flag in order to obtain this?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You can loop through the second file and keep greping each line in the first file.

Like this, for example:

while read line
do
   grep -wF "$line" f1
done < f2

Explanation

• grep -w matches full words.
• grep -F matches fixed strings, so no regex.

Test

$ while read line; do grep "$line" f1; done < f2
rs1333026 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000  
rs11847697 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000 2.000  
rs4771122 1.983 0.998 1.998 1.990 0.998 0.988 1.000 1.984 0.001 1.998 1.996  
rs10150332 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 1.000 0.975 0.000 1.000