CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ksh
Emma Tebbs
Emma Tebbs

Reputation: 1467

read column from csv file in terminal ignoring the header

I'm writting a simple .ksh file to read a single column from a .csv file and then printing the output to the screen: 

fname=($(cut -d, -f2 "myfile.csv"))
# loop through these names
for i in ${fname[@]}; 
do echo "$i"
done

This works fine but I don't want to return the header row, that is the first row of the file. How would I alter the cut command so that it ignore the first value or string. In this case the header is called 'NAME'. I want to print all of the other rows of this file.

That being said, is it easier to loop through from 2:fname as the code is currently written or is it best to alter the cut command?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 341

Answers (1)

glenn jackman
glenn jackman

Reputation: 247210

You could do

fname=($(sed 1d myfile.csv | cut -d, -f2))

Alternately, the index of the first element of the array is 0: to start the loop at index 1:

for i in "${fname[@]:1}"; do

Demo:

$ a=(a b c d e f)
$ echo "${a[@]:1}"
b c d e f

Note, you should always put the array expansion in double quotes.

Upvotes: 2

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