Shell Programming and Scripting

Please suggest a method (in c shell or any other shell) to implement following:

-To read file1.txt (sample file1 given below)
-To save name field in a variable <name>
-To save parameter field in a variable <parameter>
for ex. let a line in file1.txt be :

Code:

bill height weight

the extracted results can be checked as:
echo "$bill" # prints - bill
echo "$height" #prints - height
echo "$weight" #prints - weight

sample file1.txt

Code:

ani year month
sam time day
bill height weight
.
.

The idea is to enter the data in file1 as and when requiring and the script automatically extracting even the new line.
I guess it can be possible using "awk", but need HELP!

---------- Post updated at 02:44 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:38 PM ----------

--- added later-------
or is it possible to do what i have asked in previous post?
please advice

Code:

 
awk '{ a=$1;b=$2;c=$3 } END { print a , b , c}' input_file

Which ensure you wil get only the "last" line fields which i believe is the last added line.

@panyam, thanks for the answer, but its not exactly what i am looking for.

what i want from all of it is to write a script to extract one element of each filed at a time and then save them in a variable of name same as the element extracted.

It is confusing, please check the example in my first post.

Thanks

Code:

bash-3.00$ cat test
abc efg
hij
klm
 
bash-3.00$ awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++)printf("%s=%s\n",$i,$i)}' test > test.var && . test.var
 
bash-3.00$ echo $abc
abc
bash-3.00$ echo $efg
efg
bash-3.00$ echo $hij
hij
bash-3.00$ echo $klm
klm

You can try this
set $bill=`cat file1.txt | tr " " "_" | cut -f1 -d_`
set $height=`cat file1.txt | tr " " "_" | cut -f2 -d_`
set $weight=`cat file1.txt | tr " " "_" | cut -f3 -d_`

Something like this:

Code:

 
TestBox>for word in `cat input_file`
> do
> eval $word="$word"
> export $word
> done
 
echo $ani
ani
 
echo $bill
bill

@arup
Your answer will work for a specific entries in file1, however i am expecting a generic method.
But still, thanks for your effort

---------- Post updated 07-28-11 at 09:35 AM ---------- Previous update was 07-27-11 at 04:13 PM ----------

@itkamaraj
Thanks, your code works. I am trying to understand the logic behind your code.

can you explain the following points:

Code:

awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf("%s=%s\n",$i,$i)}' test > test.var && . test.var

Please explain what the test.var && . test.var signify?