Python script to transpose tab-delimited data (e.g. copy-pasted data from a spreadsheet).

tsv_transpose.py

import csv
import itertools
import sys

# Read all Tab-delimited rows from stdin.
tsv_reader = csv.reader(sys.stdin, delimiter='\t')
all_data = list(tsv_reader)

# Transpose it.
all_data = list(itertools.izip_longest(*all_data, fillvalue=''))

# Write it back out.
tsv_writer = csv.writer(sys.stdout, delimiter='\t')
for row in all_data:
    tsv_writer.writerow(row) 

tsv_transpose_nostdlib.py

import sys

# Read all Tab-delimited rows from stdin.
all_data = []
for line in sys.stdin:
    all_data.append(line.strip().split('\t'))

# Transpose it.
transposed = []
for row_i in range(len(all_data[0])):
    new_row = []
    for col_i in range(len(all_data)):
        new_row.append(all_data[col_i][row_i])
    transposed.append(new_row)

# Write it back out.
for row in transposed:
    print '\t'.join(row)