input_file (columns are tab delimited, only column 4 contains spaces)input A B C D;<>X;<>Y 0C D E F;<>Z;<>X 1output A B C D;<>X;<>Y;<>apple=0C D E F;<>Z;<>X;<>apple=1I would like to merge the last column of input_file with the second last column and separate the value of last column with ; and a tag apple= in second last column (just like in column number 4 of input_file). Hence that output_file has one less column. It is also necessary to keep the formatting output file to be intact.As all the columns are tab delimited, but the values in column 4 has spaces too (D;<>X;<>Y). Hence I want to keep all the field separators of input file as such,  just want to merge the value of last column in the second last with a tag (apple=). Thanks
merging two column
sed;awk;merge
changing the last but one field and removing the last field:$ awk '{$(NF-1)=$(NF-1);<>apple=$NF;$NF=;}1' OFS=\t file