Given a set (2 or more) of tab-delimited .txt files in the format of:

File A: 
I    9     A    B    0.25   6
I    21    B    A    1      6
I    33    C    C    0.5    2
I    40    D    D    1      2
I    56    A    E    1      2

[download]
File B: 
I    9     A    B    0.30   8
I    21    B    A    1      6
I    33    C    C    1      2
I    40    D    D    1      5

[download]

Is it possible to identify partially duplicate lines based solely on the contents of columns-1-4 and then merge the numerical contents of columns 5-6 into a single line? For example, given the two above .txt files, the desired output would be:

I    9     A    B    0.275   14
I    21    B    A    1       12
I    33    C    C    0.75    4
I    40    D    D    1       7
I    56    A    E    1       2

[download]

i.e. if the contents of columns 1-4 match those of 1 or more other lines, average the numerical value in column 5 between all matched lines (for example on the first line - (0.25+0.3)/2 = 0.275) and sum the contents of column 6 between all matched lines (for example on the first line - 6+8=14). If the content of columns 1-4 is unique, print the line without modification (for example - the final line of File A which has no cognate partner within File B)

How could this be done? My knowledge of Perl is rather limited; I would presume I would need to read all of the lines into a single array and then perhaps use seen or the uniq function found in List::MoreUtils to begin to look for partial duplicate lines, but I am rather unsure. Thank you in advance for any help.

In reply to Merging partially duplicate lines by K_Edw

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