bash-4.2$ echo 'Station Name Station Code A N %s DEV NAGAR ACND ABHAIPUR AHA ABOHAR ABS ABU ROAD ABR' | awk 'NR%2==1 {printf $0","} NR%2==0 { print $0}' Station Name,Station Code awk: cmd. line:1: (FILENAME=- FNR=3) fatal: not enough arguments to satisfy format string `A N %s DEV NAGAR,' ^ ran out for this one