How to merge two files in awk??

[Dan Bernstein]

In article <1991Jan19.194124.2335 at convex.com> tchrist at convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) writes:
> : for example if File A has collumns a, c, e 
> : and File B has collumns b, d, f. I want to generate File C
> : with collumns a,b,c,d,e,f.  Also it would be nice to be able to
> : using the arithematic feature in awk...
> Someone out there may have as paste solution, but I didn't see one.  

Is that a challenge?

  #!/bin/sh
  # untested, but too simple to fail in strange ways
  # type X as tab
  awk '{ print $1; print $2; print $3 }' < "$1" > /tmp/file1.$$
  awk '{ print $1; print $2; print $3 }' < "$2" > /tmp/file2.$$
  paste /tmp/file1.$$ /tmp/file2.$$ | (
  while read i
  do
    read j; read k
    echo "$iX$jX$k"
  done
  )
  rm /tmp/file1.$$ /tmp/file2.$$

---Dan