Shell Programming and Scripting

Well, I tried out the awk - and thought it might be a little easier to read (just to understand it better) if you try it like this:

1) create "search.awk" and inside, put this:

Code:

BEGIN { lengths="10,8,21,5,5,5"
        FS = OFS = ","
        split(lengths,size,FS)
      }
      { n = 0
        while ( ++n <= NF ) $n = substr($n,1,size[n])
        print
      }

2) save and then run like this:
"awk -f search.awk csv.file"

3) output is:
1,Test Nam,"This is a test and i,,,1234


...so the theory works. Except that it includes the " as a char.

Hope this is enough to set your mind off on the right track!

Are you running on Solaris?

If so, use nawk or /usr/xpg4/bin/awk.

Thnx guyz for all the help!!! will come back soon