Microsoft Excel: What is the EASIEST way to merge several delimited text files while ignoring all 1st row (headers) below the first master file?

In Bash, if you're using Unix, Linux, or Mac, or Windows with cygwin: #!/bin/bash cat "$1" for file in `seq 2 $#`; do awk 'NR>1' < "$file" done Execute it as ./scriptname master.txt file1.txt file2.txt > output.txt.

Given the wording of the question, I assume you want to keep the header only from the master file, and include the data from that file and all the other files. Without knowing how you want data to be merged (can we assume the headers are the same for all the files or something?), here's a simple implementation in Python: master_file = "tmp1.txt" # the "master" file? other_files = ["tmp2.txt"] # the rest output_file = "out.txt" # the merged file # copy of the master file file_in = open(master_file, 'r') file_out = open(output_file, 'w') info = file_in.read() file_in.close() file_out.write(info) file_out.write('\n') # process other files for f in other_files: # remove header first_line = True file_in = open(f, 'r') for line in file_in: if first_line: first_line = False continue file_out.write(line) file_out.write('\n') file_in.close() file_out.close()

You have marked Microsoft Excel topic as the primary topic, therefore I am assuming you want a Microsoft solution. I do not know if this is a one-off exercise or regular one, so makes it hard to recommend the best solution. For simplicity sake, let's assume this is a one-off exercise with ability to repeat (if needed). I have written some high level steps below. Should you require more detail, this can be added in later. 1. Open Microsoft Excel 2. Begin recording a macro: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word-help/record-or-run-a-macro-HA010099769.aspx 3. Open the first file in Microsoft Excel. 4. Edit the first file as required. For example retain the headers. 5. Save this file as "Master". 6. Open the next file. Copy the required data to the master file. 7. Close second file. 8. Highlight column A. Use the text to columns function to split the data into columns. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214261 9. Stop recording macro. 10. View the macro code by opening the macro in Visual Studio (short cut key ALT +F11). 11. Now modify the code accordingly - such as looping through steps 6 & 7. Appreciate some coding and manual effort is required here, however the recorded code could be tailored to repeat this process.