Need to count how many ; in a file 1

[jpor]

Hi all,

This may be a stupid question. But I need to count how many ; are in each line in a file.

I have tried the following:

cat <filename> |grep ";" |wc -c

But all I get is the whole count of characters.

Can anyone help?



( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[PHV]

how many ; are in each line in a file
awk -F';' '{print NR,NF-1}' filename

If you want the total number:
awk -F';' '{t+=(NF-1)}END{print t}' filename

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[KenCunningham]

grep will return the whole line containing any ;'s, hence your problem. There will be a way to do this using sed or awk, but I'm no expert there, I'm afraid. Someone who is will be along soon, I'm sure.

 

[KenCunningham]

Told you so!!

 

[PHV]

If the file may have empty lines:
awk -F';' 'length($0){print NR,NF-1}' filename
or
awk -F';' 'length($0){t+=(NF-1)}END{print t}' filename

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[jpor]

That was quick. Thanks people.

( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[jpor]

Okay. Just used PHV's example. I now need to run the command:

awk -F';' '{print NR,NF-1}' filename

And capture this into a variable and if any line counts different. I.e less or greater than 36 ";" then I need to show this.

( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[PHV]

Something like this ?
awk -F';' 'NF!=37' filename

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[jpor]

Close. But I still need a count of each line as each line will be uploaded into a Informix Database table and each line must have 36 ";". I need to identify any line that does not have 36 ; so it can be fixed. If that makes sense?


( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[PHV]

This ?
awk -F';' 'NF!=37{print NR,$0}' filename

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[jpor]

Sorry PHV. This may shed some light what I'm trying to achieve:

##-- Check if amount of ; is correct, if not e-mail --##

test=`awk -F';' '{print NR,NF-1}' /dump_area/p4uin/p4uin.csv >> /dump_area/p4uchk`
test=" "

while read line
do
test =`awk '{print$2}'`

done < /tmp/p4uchk

if [ "$test" != "36" ]
then
echo $test >> /tmp/p4uerr.err
sleep 3
/usr/local/bin/mpack -s "P4u File cannot be loaded for `date`" /tmp/p4uerr.err user@company.com
exit


else

echo "File is Okay to load"

fi

Basically I am reading back each line (the line with toatal of ";") then checking each one to see if it = 36 or NOT. If NOT = 36 then I need to know which one.

Thanks.



( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[PHV]

Something like this ?
awk -F';' 'NF!=37{print NR,$0}' /dump_area/p4uin/p4uin.csv > /tmp/p4uerr.err
[ -s /tmp/p4uerr.err ] && {
/usr/local/bin/mpack -s "P4u File cannot be loaded for `date`" /tmp/p4uerr.err user@company.com
exit
}
echo "File is Okay to load"

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[jpor]

PHV. You've done it again. That works. Tried with an extra ; and it e-mails if it has the correct amount it goes through.

Thanks again.


( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[jpor]

Hi again,

From the code PHV has kindly donated:

##-- Check if amount of ; is correct, if not e-mail --##

awk -F';' 'NF!=37{print NR,$0}' /dump_area/p4uin/p4uin.csv > /tmp/p4uerr.err
[ -s /tmp/p4uerr.err ] && {
/usr/local/bin/mpack -s "P4u File cannot be loaded due to field length for `date` " /tmp/p4uerr.err ccsrvjzp@mprc.co.uk ccsrvadr@m
prc.co.uk
exit
}

How can I Strip the lines away and move them to another file? Am I right in saying I need to use SED fro this?

Thanks for your patience.


( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[PHV]

You may consider something like this:
cp /dump_area/p4uin/p4uin.csv /tmp
awk -F';' '
NF!=37{print NR,$0 > "/tmp/p4uerr.err";next}
{print}
' /tmp/p4uin.csv > /dump_area/p4uin/p4uin.csv

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[jpor]

Thanks yet again PHV. Your genius.


( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot

 

[jstreich]

cat <filename> |grep ";" |wc -c

This is an abuse of cat, and would be even if it did work. The line should read:

grep ";" <filename> | wc -l

Granted this will under count, if you have a line that has more than one semi on it. My pedant was about the misuse of cat.

 

[xmb]

grep -c \; <file>

. Mac for productivity
.. Linux for developement
... Windows for solitaire

 

[vgersh99]

-c Print only a count of the lines that contain the
pattern.

vlad
+----------------------------+
| #include<disclaimer.h> |
+----------------------------+

 

[jpor]

Thanks for the replies people. I am learning new things everyday.


( &quot;To become Wise, first you must ask Questions&quot