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I have two samples where the sequencing was done on 3-lanes paired end reads. The two samples are A44943_1 and A44944_1.

I would like to generate a for in loop to merge the R1 files of sample A44943_1 from the 3-lanes, and then do the same for R2 files of this sample, then I want to merge R1 files of sample A44944_1 from the 3-lanes and then do the same for R2 files of this sample. So I thought about for in loop. My fastq files looks like:

R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L001_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L001_R2_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L002_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L002_R2_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H7YKTDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L003_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H7YKTDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L003_R2_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L001_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L001_R2_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L002_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L002_R2_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H7YKTDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L003_R1_trimmed.fastq
R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H7YKTDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L003_R2_trimmed.fastq

Could you advise me on a for in loop to do this task?

Thanks

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You can certainly use a for loop for this if desired, but an easier method is to use the cat command - something like this:

cat R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L00[123]_R1_trimmed.fastq > R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_R1_trimmed.fastq
cat R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_L00[123]_R2_trimmed.fastq > R0480-S0001_182602S1P1_A44943_1_H77YFDRXY_CGCAACTA-GAATCCGA_R2_trimmed.fastq
cat R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L00[123]_R1_trimmed.fastq > R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_R1_trimmed.fastq
cat R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_L00[123]_R2_trimmed.fastq > R0480-S0002_182602S1P2_A44944_1_H77YFDRXY_CACAGACT-TGGTACAG_R2_trimmed.fastq
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    $\begingroup$ Holy s**t, have I been missing out all along? TIL, thank you @Scot! $\endgroup$
    – Ram RS
    Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 15:41
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    $\begingroup$ I can relate, @RamRS! I love to learn a new trick... and bash is full of them. :) $\endgroup$
    – Scot
    Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 17:48
  • $\begingroup$ This is news to me too so I had to look this one up. Evidently it's part of bash's "pathname expansion" feature set, just like * (and so, distinct from "brace expansion" in that it depends on what files are present; so like, cat [123].txt expands to cat 1.txt 2.txt 3.txt if those are present, but is just cat [123].txt if not, versus {1..3}.txt which always expands). Very handy, thanks Scot. $\endgroup$
    – Jesse
    Commented Aug 25, 2023 at 15:15

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