Hi All,
I have a table with 10 columns. Some columns(2nd,4th,5th,7th,8th and 10th) are Not Null columns. I'll get a tab-delimited file and want to check col by col and generate seperate error code for each col eg:102 if 2nd col value is NULL and 104 if 4th col value is NULL so on... I am a newbie to Unix and any help will be appreciated.


Regards,
Mandab

I tried with the sample data but it is not giving the exact output:
The sample data is :
545689512<tab>20070424<tab>20070414<tab>456.25<tab>20061121<tab>pqr
<tab>20060726<tab>20060524<tab>800.12<tab><tab>abc
24<tab><tab>05242006<tab>22.15<tab>20050815<tab>xyz
57<tab>20040425<tab>20041214<tab><tab>20040628<tab>stv

Data will be from 3rd row in the file, the following is the script I tried:

#!/bin/ksh

awk -F"|" 'NR>=3 { ## data is from 3rd row onwards
if ( $2 ~ /^ *$/ ) printf("102")
if ( $4 ~ /^ *$/ ) printf("104")
printf("/n")
}' $1 ## filename

The out put I got is:
$ test6.ksh test1.txt
102104/n102104/n102104/n102104/n$

Mandab,

Try replacing the -F"|" with -F"<tab>" where <tab> is the tab character.
Also printf("/n") should be printf("\n")

Thank you for your quick response, I tried replacing as you said but still I am getting errors. The script is :
#!/bin/ksh

awk -F"<tab>" 'NR>=3 {
if ( $2 ~ /^ *$/ ) printf("102")
if ( $4 ~ /^ *$/ ) printf("104)
printf("\n")
}' $1

Errors I am getting:
$ test7 test1.txt
awk: newline in string near line 3
awk: syntax error near line 4
awk: illegal statement near line 4

I had intended that <tab> be replaced literally by the tab character - CTNL(H).

You are missing a close " after 104.

I am confused. Is your file delimited by the tab character or by set of characters "<tab>" shown in your post?

Excellent !! its working fine now.
But there is one small problem, If there is an error in field one and also field two then I should have only error to be printed as "102". but not both "102" and "104" to be printed, basing on the serial order of fields like field1, field2. Also can I use the error value in a variable so that I can use it for different purpose in my script(outside awk)?

Here is the script:
#!/bin/ksh

awk -F"," 'NR>=3 {
if (length($2)!= 8 || $2 ~ /[^0-9]/ || $2 ~ /^ *$/ ) {var1="102"}
if ( $4 ~ /^ *$/ ) {var1="104"}
{printf var1}
printf("\n")
}' $1


The output:


102
104