I have a tab separated file with these contents, lets call it test.dat:
Hf 0.26748 0.24144 0.03301
Hf 0.26748 0.74144 0.46699
Hf 0.73252 0.24144 0.53301
Hf 0.73252 0.74144 0.96699
O 0.07135 0.37927 0.36787
O 0.07135 0.87927 0.13213
O 0.46012 0.49229 0.73395
O 0.46012 0.99229 0.76605
O 0.53988 0.99229 0.26605
O 0.53988 0.49229 0.23395
O 0.92865 0.37927 0.86787
O 0.92865 0.87927 0.63213
Now I want to subtract 0.25 from column 2 and 3. So I do this:
awk '{print $1 " " ($2-0.25) " " ($3-0.25) " " $4}' test.dat
The output is:
Hf 0.01748 -0.00856 0.03301
Hf 0.01748 0.49144 0.46699
Hf 0.48252 -0.00856 0.53301
Hf 0.48252 0.49144 0.96699
O -0.17865 0.12927 0.36787
O -0.17865 0.62927 0.13213
O 0.21012 0.24229 0.73395
O 0.21012 0.74229 0.76605
O 0.28988 0.74229 0.26605
O 0.28988 0.24229 0.23395
O 0.67865 0.12927 0.86787
O 0.67865 0.62927 0.63213
But I wanted the new output to be tab separated instead of the " ".
So I tried:
awk -v OFS='\t' -v FS='\t' '{print $1 " " ($2-0.25) " " ($3-0.25) " " $4}' test.dat
And the output is now weird:
Hf 0.26748 0.24144 0.03301-0.25-0.25
Hf 0.26748 0.74144 0.46699-0.25-0.25
Hf 0.73252 0.24144 0.53301-0.25-0.25
Hf 0.73252 0.74144 0.96699-0.25-0.25
O 0.07135 0.37927 0.36787-0.25-0.25
O 0.07135 0.87927 0.13213-0.25-0.25
O 0.46012 0.49229 0.73395-0.25-0.25
O 0.46012 0.99229 0.76605-0.25-0.25
O 0.53988 0.99229 0.26605-0.25-0.25
O 0.53988 0.49229 0.23395-0.25-0.25
O 0.92865 0.37927 0.86787-0.25-0.25
O 0.92865 0.87927 0.63213-0.25-0.25
What am I doing wrong?
Important Edit:
As @Renaud Pacalet correctly observed, I was confusing tab separation and alignment. I wanted an output with aligned columns! Hence the accepted answer below!
Edit:
Results of the suggestions below:
$ awk -v OFS='\t' -v FS='\t' '{print $1, ($2-0.25), ($3-0.25), $4}' hfo-test.dat
Hf 0.26748 0.24144 0.03301 -0.25 -0.25
Hf 0.26748 0.74144 0.46699 -0.25 -0.25
Hf 0.73252 0.24144 0.53301 -0.25 -0.25
Hf 0.73252 0.74144 0.96699 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.07135 0.37927 0.36787 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.07135 0.87927 0.13213 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.46012 0.49229 0.73395 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.46012 0.99229 0.76605 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.53988 0.99229 0.26605 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.53988 0.49229 0.23395 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.92865 0.37927 0.86787 -0.25 -0.25
O 0.92865 0.87927 0.63213 -0.25 -0.25
Another try:
$ awk -v OFS='\t' '{$2-=0.25; $3-=0.25; print}' hfo-test.dat
Hf 0.01748 -0.00856 0.03301
Hf 0.01748 0.49144 0.46699
Hf 0.48252 -0.00856 0.53301
Hf 0.48252 0.49144 0.96699
O -0.17865 0.12927 0.36787
O -0.17865 0.62927 0.13213
O 0.21012 0.24229 0.73395
O 0.21012 0.74229 0.76605
O 0.28988 0.74229 0.26605
O 0.28988 0.24229 0.23395
O 0.67865 0.12927 0.86787
O 0.67865 0.62927 0.63213
The difference between your 2 first tries and the 2 next ones comes from the fact that your input file is not tab-separated. So with -v FS='\t' the whole line is considered as the first (and unique) field.
The output of the fifth try is tab-separated but what you apparently want is not a tab-separated output, it is an output with aligned columns. Try:
awk '{$2-=0.25; $3-=0.25; print}' test.dat | column -t
or, if you prefer a right alignment:
awk '{$2-=0.25; $3-=0.25; print}' test.dat | column -tR0