[SOLVED] How to Get coloumn number of csv file using AWk

tusharsharma43 · 01-09-2013, 03:26 AM

Hello,

I want to get coloumn number from csv file using column value or name.

Ex.
xyz.txt

abc|123|xyz|pqr|mno

I want to coloumn number of "xyz" using awk.

Can any one help me with the issue.

Thanks
Tushar

bijo505 · 01-09-2013, 04:23 AM

Hi,

Are you looking for the o/p like this?
[code]
cat xyz.txt | awk -F "|" '{print NR,$3}' # This will print the field with line number
1 xyz

cat xyz.txt | awk -F "|" '{print $3}' # This will print only the 3rd field
xyz
[\code]
--
Thanks,
Bijo

theFreethinker · 01-09-2013, 04:23 AM

Set up a counter, and in loop check the column content against previously known string until you find the match. Now you just have to read the counter to get the column number. Probably there are more elegant ways to do it but this is most robust and straight-forward method.

Guttorm · 01-09-2013, 06:02 AM

Does it have to be awk?

Code:

echo "abc|123|xyz|pqr|mno" | tr '|' '\n' | grep -n xyz | cut -f1 -d':'

theFreethinker · 01-09-2013, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guttorm

Does it have to be awk?

Code:

echo "abc|123|xyz|pqr|mno" | tr '|' '\n' | grep -n xyz | cut -f1 -d':'

If the actual problem involves bigger input file, with changing structure,

Code:

head -1 inputfile.txt

instead of 'echo' might be useful. But solution itself seems to be as elegant as possible.

tusharsharma43 · 01-11-2013, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theFreethinker

Set up a counter, and in loop check the column content against previously known string until you find the match. Now you just have to read the counter to get the column number. Probably there are more elegant ways to do it but this is most robust and straight-forward method.

Okay thats the basic way, I thought there might be some command using which i can easily retrieve coloumn number of given string in given csv file.

Thanks & Regards
Tushar Sharma

tusharsharma43 · 01-11-2013, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guttorm

Does it have to be awk?

Code:

echo "abc|123|xyz|pqr|mno" | tr '|' '\n' | grep -n xyz | cut -f1 -d':'

Thanks a lot, that was only thing I was trying.

Thanks & Regards
Tushar Sharma

theFreethinker · 01-11-2013, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tusharsharma43

Okay thats the basic way, I thought there might be some command using which i can easily retrieve coloumn number of given string in given csv file.

Actually you asked initially how to get the column number using awk, not just how to get the column number.

But still glad you found a solution to your problem!

colucix · 01-11-2013, 01:58 AM

Following the suggestion by Guttorm, here is the same algorithm in awk:

Code:

awk 'BEGIN{RS="|"}/xyz/{print NR; exit}' file