Sponsored Content
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users how to find lenght of fixed width file record? Post 302710345 by jim mcnamara on Thursday 4th of October 2012 08:47:23 AM
Old 10-04-2012
'fixed width records' does not necessarily mean carriage control ("\n") at the end of a line. It just means the data are laid out in a fixed pattern, probably with no character to mark then end of the line. If it is a fixed record length file with carriage control, then just read the very first line.
Code:
awk '{print length($0); exit}' infile

Without carriage control you will have a much harder time finding the record length, generally you need to get that information from a source external to the file: file metadata, specifications, someone who knows.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Fixed Width file using AWK

I am using the following command at the Unix prompt to make my 'infile' into a fixed width file of 100 characters. awk '{printf "%-100s\n",$0}' infile > outfile However, there are some records with a special character "©" These records are using 3 characters in place of one and my record... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: alok.benjwal
2 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

How to insert a record in fixed width flatfile

I have a fixed width flatfile with 5 columns, i will load file from oracle database to the flatfile for every 15 min at the end of the file, i want to insert a record by calling a shell script for inserting a record. please can any one help me. Thanks. (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: limou
1 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Can we convert a '|' file into a fixed lenght???

Hi All, I have a pipe separated flat file.But there is often some problem with the records.So is it possible to convert the '|' separated file into a fixed length file by means of some script. The file has 11 columns which means 10 pipes.Your help is appreciated. i'm using Sun OS Version... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: kumarsaravana_s
2 Replies

4. UNIX Desktop Questions & Answers

Help with Fixed width File Parsing

I am trying to parse a Fixed width file with data as below. I am trying to assign column values from each record to variables. When I parse the data, the spaces in all coumns are dropped. I would like to retain the spaces as part of the dat stored in the variables. Any help is appreciated. I... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: sate911
4 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

What the command to find out the record length of a fixed length file?

I want to find out the record length of a fixed length file? I forgot the command. Any body know? (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: tranq01
9 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Removing \n within a fixed width record

I am trying to remove a line feed (\n) within a fixed width record. I tried the tr -d ‘\n' command, but it also removes the record delimiter. Is there a way to remove the line feed without removing the record delimiter? (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: CKT_newbie88
10 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Fixed-Width file from Oracle

Hi All, I have created a script which generates FIXED-WIDTH file by executing Oracle query. SELECT RPAD(NVL(col1,CHR(9)),20)||NVL(col2,CHR(9))||NVL(col3,CHR(9) FROM XYZ It generates the data file with proper alignment. But if same file i transfer to windows server or Mainframe... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: Amit.Sagpariya
5 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Comparing two fixed width file

Hi Guys I am checking the treads to get the answer but i am not able to get the answer for my question. I have two files. First file is a pattern file and the second file is the file i want to search in it. Output will be the lines from file2. File1: P2797f12af 44751228... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: anshul_er
10 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Length of a fixed width file

I have a fixed width file of length 53. when is try to get the lengh of the record of that file i get 2 different answers. awk '{print length;exit}' <File_name> The above code gives me length 50. wc -L <File_name> The above code gives me length 53. Please clarify on... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Amrutha24
2 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Alter Fixed Width File

Thank u so much .Its working fine as expected. ---------- Post updated at 03:41 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:46 PM ---------- I need one more help. I have another file(fixed length) that will get negative value (ex:-00000000003000) in postion (98 - 112) then i have to... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: vinus
6 Replies
RECNO(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						  RECNO(3)

NAME
recno -- record number database access method SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> #include <db.h> DESCRIPTION
The routine dbopen() is the library interface to database files. One of the supported file formats is record number files. The general description of the database access methods is in dbopen(3), this manual page describes only the recno specific information. The record number data structure is either variable or fixed-length records stored in a flat-file format, accessed by the logical record num- ber. The existence of record number five implies the existence of records one through four, and the deletion of record number one causes record number five to be renumbered to record number four, as well as the cursor, if positioned after record number one, to shift down one record. The recno access method specific data structure provided to dbopen() is defined in the <db.h> include file as follows: typedef struct { u_long flags; u_int cachesize; u_int psize; int lorder; size_t reclen; uint8_t bval; char *bfname; } RECNOINFO; The elements of this structure are defined as follows: flags The flag value is specified by or'ing any of the following values: R_FIXEDLEN The records are fixed-length, not byte delimited. The structure element reclen specifies the length of the record, and the structure element bval is used as the pad character. Any records, inserted into the database, that are less than reclen bytes long are automatically padded. R_NOKEY In the interface specified by dbopen(), the sequential record retrieval fills in both the caller's key and data structures. If the R_NOKEY flag is specified, the cursor routines are not required to fill in the key structure. This permits applications to retrieve records at the end of files without reading all of the intervening records. R_SNAPSHOT This flag requires that a snapshot of the file be taken when dbopen() is called, instead of permitting any unmodified records to be read from the original file. cachesize A suggested maximum size, in bytes, of the memory cache. This value is only advisory, and the access method will allocate more memory rather than fail. If cachesize is 0 (no size is specified) a default cache is used. psize The recno access method stores the in-memory copies of its records in a btree. This value is the size (in bytes) of the pages used for nodes in that tree. If psize is 0 (no page size is specified) a page size is chosen based on the underlying file system I/O block size. See btree(3) for more information. lorder The byte order for integers in the stored database metadata. The number should represent the order as an integer; for example, big endian order would be the number 4,321. If lorder is 0 (no order is specified) the current host order is used. reclen The length of a fixed-length record. bval The delimiting byte to be used to mark the end of a record for variable-length records, and the pad character for fixed-length records. If no value is specified, newlines (`` '') are used to mark the end of variable-length records and fixed-length records are padded with spaces. bfname The recno access method stores the in-memory copies of its records in a btree. If bfname is non-NULL, it specifies the name of the btree file, as if specified as the file name for a dbopen() of a btree file. The data part of the key/data pair used by the recno access method is the same as other access methods. The key is different. The data field of the key should be a pointer to a memory location of type recno_t, as defined in the <db.h> include file. This type is normally the largest unsigned integral type available to the implementation. The size field of the key should be the size of that type. Because there can be no meta-data associated with the underlying recno access method files, any changes made to the default values (e.g., fixed record length or byte separator value) must be explicitly specified each time the file is opened. In the interface specified by dbopen(), using the put interface to create a new record will cause the creation of multiple, empty records if the record number is more than one greater than the largest record currently in the database. ERRORS
The recno access method routines may fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the library routine dbopen(3) or the following: EINVAL An attempt was made to add a record to a fixed-length database that was too large to fit. SEE ALSO
btree(3), dbopen(3), hash(3), mpool(3) Michael Stonebraker, Heidi Stettner, Joseph Kalash, Antonin Guttman, and Nadene Lynn, "Document Processing in a Relational Database System", Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M82/32, May 1982. BUGS
Only big and little endian byte order is supported. BSD
April 17, 2003 BSD
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 08:29 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy