How to create a file outputting fields in a fixed position 2

[HHG]

Hi All,

Does anyone know the best way to do the following if its at all possible using awk or sed.

I have a file that contains 3 fields per transaction

e.g.
Field1,Field2,Field3

I want to recreate the file so that Field1 starts at potion 1 on the line, field2 starts at character position 42 and field 3 at character position 49 etc..

So each line on the file will look something like this: -

Field1 Field2 Field3
Field1 etc...

I will be very grateful of any help please.
Many thanks

 

[p5wizard]

look at printf command (formatted output)

man printf

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[TSch]

Hi,

how about something like this:

--------------------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/ksh

typeset -L16 No1
typeset -L16 No2
typeset -L16 No3

No1=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $1}' FS=,)
No2=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $1}' FS=,)
No3=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $1}' FS=,)

echo "$No1 $No2 $No3" >> newfile
--------------------------------------------

Remark:

"cat 2" means the infofile that I created. You'll have to change it according to what the file your fields are stored in is called.

typeset defines the length for each field.

Regards
Thomas

 

[TSch]

oops
there's a mistake ...

You'll have to change the script like this:

No1=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $1}' FS=,)
No2=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $2}' FS=,)
No3=$(cat 2 | awk '{print $3}' FS=,)


(It is of course not always $1)

Sorry.

Regards
Thomas

 

[HHG]

Thanks Thomas I will give this a go.

Cheers

 

[HHG]

Hiya,

I have tried this but is only good if there is only one record within your input file (Cat 2). I have a file that will contain, several records.

e.g

$1 $2 $3 $4
123452,1256235635662,124562463,121313131
134486,6883864133767,454646454,787994947

also the -L removes leading blanks and I need to keep these in.

Any other ideas may be good, if not thanks anyway.

 

[PHV]

In the awk man page have a look at the printf function.

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886