cutting columns if delimiter has more than one charecter - UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

mahabunta · #1 09-12-2006

Hi,

My file looks like

abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%

here as seen delimiter is $%...now how cas i take out second field as cut command expect delimiter as single charecter only.....is there is any other way

thanks and regards
mahabunta

anbu23 · #2 09-12-2006

Code:

echo "abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%" | tr -s '$%' '  ' | cut -d" " -f3

I think you can not use two char as delimiter in cut. What you can do is translate that two char to single char and then cut it

mahabunta · #3 09-12-2006

thanks for reply.....

but is there is any other wat wirhout using tr command.......may be in AWk or any other method...

mahabunta · #4 09-12-2006

hi,

I guess it can be done using awk scripting....

say my file is delimited by ~%%~ and i need 6th field then following command will give me correct result.......

cat file | awk -F "~%%~" '{print $6}'

sandy

BOFH · #5 09-12-2006

Hmm, that didn't work in my test. Passing more than one character to -F just returned the entire line as argument $1.

Code:

awk -F"\$%" '{print $1}' file

abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%
abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%

You could use sed to change it:

Code:

sed -e "s/\$%/:/g" file | cut -f3 -d:

sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf

Or use tr as noted earlier:

Code:

cat files | tr -s "$%" ":" | cut -f3 -d:

sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf
sdf

It appears the $% is causing issues with the -F command. If I replace the $% with ", ", I can run

Code:

awk -F", " '{print $2}' files2

sdfhs
sdfhs
sdfhs
sdfhs
sdfhs
sdfhs

And it works. I also tried the $% delimiter in an awk script and it didn't work either. I tried escaping one and both characters without success.

Carl

Ygor · #6 09-12-2006

Escape the backslash, like this...

Code:

$ awk -F '\\$%' '{print $1}' file
abc
abc
abc

ghostdog74 · #7 09-12-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by mahabunta

Hi,

My file looks like

abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%

here as seen delimiter is $%...now how cas i take out second field as cut command expect delimiter as single charecter only.....is there is any other way

thanks and regards
mahabunta

Just an alternative, in Python:

Code:

>>> line = "abc$%sdfhs$%sdf$%sdfaf$%"
>>> secondfield = line.split("$%")[1] #element 1 is second field
>>> print secondfield
sdfhs

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