CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshellunix
user10480468
user10480468

Reputation:

Retrieve Field Rows from a Pipe Delimited File

I need to get first 9 words from a pipe delimited file and then next 9 words. Any help is appreciated. 

cat a.txt
a|b|c|d|e|f|g|h|i|j|k|l|m|n|o|p|q|r|s|t|u|v|w|x|y|z|

cat new.ksh
#! /bin/ksh
a=`awk -F "|" ' { print NF-1 } ' a.txt`
echo $a

Expected Output:
a|b|c|d|e|f|g|h|i|
j|k|l|m|n|o|p|q|r|
s|t|u|v|w|x|y|z

Upvotes: 0

Views: 175

Answers (2)

user1683793
user1683793

Reputation: 1313

I pure ksh version:

IFS='|'
typeset -a str=( $( < a.txt ) )
len=${#str[@]}
bar='|'
for ((ii=0; ii<len; ii+=9))
do
    max=9
    (( ii+9 > len )) && max=$(( len-ii ))
    for ((jj=0; jj<max; jj++))
    do
        element=$(( ii+jj ))
        (( element == len-1 )) && bar=''
        echo -e "${str[$element]}${bar}\c"
    done
    echo
done

Explanation:

  • IFS: This is the Internal field separator, normally this is space and tab but if it is reassigned, it separates other types of data.
  • typeset -a We are creating an array to hold the data.
  • str=( $( < a.txt ) ) We read in the data from the a.txt array as elements of the array.
  • len=${#str[@]} We need to know how long the array is so we know how much to print out.
  • Outer for loop, you wanted to see the values in groups of 9. This steps through the array nine at a time.
  • To avoid running off the end, I created a variable max that will hold how many elements are on the current line. The we guess 9 and then updated it if necessary.
  • (( ii+9 > len )) && max=$(( len-ii )) This is doing an integer comparison of ii+9 against the length. If the condition is true, we update max with the lower value.
  • Inner for loop, this where we step through the elements of the line.
  • element=... We want the ii+jj element so here we calculate the value.
  • (( element == len-1 )) && bar='' You had no bar at the end. To avoid printing the bar, we use a bar variable that we turn to nothing when done.
  • echo -e "${str[$element]}${bar}\c" Here we print that element along with the bar variable. The \c says do not end the print with a newline. The -e is required to get the \c to work.
  • echo Since we did not get linefeeds for each element, we need to put it out now that we have 9 elements.

This version also works with bash.

Upvotes: 0

Walter A
Walter A

Reputation: 20002

sed -r 's/([^|]*\|){9}/&\n/g' a.txt

Explanation: [^|] Not a |.
[^|]*\| One field (without |), followed by a |.
([^|]*\|){9} 9 fields, each followed by a |.
&\n Replace by the matched string followed by a newline.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions