Delimited by space and double quotes

[jdempsey069]

I have a file which has text enclosed in double quotes, but numbers and dates un-quoted. How can I query the number of fields but indicating the correct delimiter.

eg. "1234X" 0 "" " " 07/10/05 ? "Today" 0 0

has 9 fields.
thanks

 

[feherke]

Hi

I hate such format.

BEGIN {
  FS=""
}

{
  nf=1
  q=0
  for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) {
    if ($i=="\"") q=1-q;
    if ($i==" " && !q) nf++
  }
  print nf
}

This simply print the proper number of fields, as you requested. I would change it's format as soon as possible, to something easier to parse.

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[jdempsey069]

Feherke,

running this against my example, I have 1 returned. Is there something missing?

thanks
john

 

[feherke]

Hi

Strange. In fact, I use [tt]gawk[/tt] 3.1.1, with a standard [tt]awk[/tt] probably will not work. If you have no [tt]gawk[/tt], try it with [tt]nawk[/tt], [tt]mawk[/tt] or any extended variant.

[blue]master #[/blue] echo '"1234X" 0 "" " " 07/10/05 ? "Today" 0 0' | quoted.awk
9

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[PHV]

A starting point:
awk '{x=$0;gsub(/"[^"]*"/,"X",x);print "Record "NR" has "split(x,a)" fields"}' /path/to/input

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[jdempsey069]

If I do not specify a delimiter, HP-UX awk (standard) reports "cannot have more than 199 fields". I know it should only contain max 191 fields, which is what I'm trying to check.

I'll also look at getting another version in the meantime.

thanks

 

[PHV]

awk -F'|' '{x=$0;gsub(/"[^"]*"/,"X",x);print "Record "NR" has "split(x,a,/[ \t]+/)" fields"}'

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[jdempsey069]

PHV

that worked ok, thanks.
Could you just explain what the gsub is doing, to help my learning.

john

 

[PHV]

It replace this:
"1234X" 0 "" " " 07/10/05 ? "Today" 0 0
By this:
X 0 X X 07/10/05 ? X 0 0

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886