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Old 09-27-2007, 10:11 AM   #1
btm
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Moving columns with sed or awk?


I have a text file that I have parsed with commas using sed. There are also spaces between the columns (making them fixed width) which I strip out in the end to make it a true csv file for exportation to a database.

Question:
I need to rearrange some of the columns. I.E. column 4 needs to be after column 1, etc.
 
Old 09-27-2007, 10:41 AM   #2
ChrisScott
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You could use SED for that (lots of alternatives as well, I expect!):
Code:
sed 's@\(.*\),\(.*\),\(.*\)@\2,\1,\3@g' file
ie,

1,4,7
2,3,4

becomes,

4,1,7
3,2,4
 
Old 09-27-2007, 11:14 AM   #3
ChrisScott
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You could use a sed script to reajust your columns to:
Code:
cat <<EOF>sedscript
s@\(.*\),\(.*\),\(.*\)@,\2,\1,\3@g
s@ *,@,@g
: width
s@,\([^,]\{0,10\}\),@,\1 ,@g
t width
s@^,@@g
EOF
sed -f sedscript file
the 10 in - s@,\([^,]\{0,10\}\),@,\1 ,@g - is the width the column will become.

Last edited by ChrisScott; 09-27-2007 at 11:15 AM.
 
Old 09-27-2007, 11:50 AM   #4
pwc101
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You can use awk:
Code:
awk 'BEGIN {OFS = ","}; {print $1,$4,$2,$3}' your.file > your_output.file
The {OFS = ","} sets the output field separator as a comma, allowing for your csv file creation. The $1,$4 bit reorders to columns according to their numerical value.

Last edited by pwc101; 09-27-2007 at 11:52 AM. Reason: tidy up formatting
 
Old 09-27-2007, 03:03 PM   #5
btm
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Thanks, all. ALL of your solutions work perfectly for me.
 
  


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