UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi:

I have a text file date(pipe delimited) which is loaded in to the DB using sql loader(&CTL files) after some initial validation by the shell script.
Now i have a situation where the shell script needs to check a column in the text file and if it is NULL then it needs send this record/row to another new file ( later this file will be used to attach in the email to correct the null column), i do not want to delete the record from the original file but just want to check that column and if its null send the row to new file...here is data in the text file which i trimmed/formated for easy understanding:

Code:

HDR|ABCD|10-13-2008 to 10-19-2008.txt|10-19-2008|XYZ
DTL|H|5464-1|0|02-02-2008|02-03-2008||||F|||||||||
DTL|D|5464-1|1|02-02-2008|02-03-2008|1|M|JJJ
DTL|D|5464-1|2|02-02-2008|02-03-2008|1|M|JJJ
DTL|D|5464-1|3|02-02-2008|02-03-2008|1||JJJ
DTL|D|5464-1|4|02-02-2008|02-03-2008|1||JJJ
TRL|ABCD|10-13-2008 to 10-19-2008.Txt|10-19-2008|170|XYZ

I would like to check the 8th column which has 'M' for couple of records and NULL/nothing for couple others, i would like to send the ones which are NULL to new file.

Any kind of suggestion would be really appreciated.

thanks,
ravi

Code:

nawk -F'|' '$8 == "" ' myPipeFile >nullFile.txt

Thanks VGERSH99.
But could you please tell me how do i test it on the unix command prompt...i mean how do i send in the input file? so that it checks for the null column in all the records?

apreciate it.


thanks,
ravi

my bad - missed the input file - edited the original post.

Hi:

thanks again

If i execute this:

nawk -F'|' '$8 == "" ' inst.txt >null.txt
the null.txt is getting all the records dumped in to it as it is from the original file.

nawk -F'|' '$8 == " " ' inst.txt >null.txt
(with a space in " ")

the null.txt is empty.

it means that ALL your records have an 'empty' 8-th field
it means that NONE of your records have an 8-th field containing ' ' (space).

I noticed some of your records/lines have less than 8 fields - you might want to 'skip' those:

Code:

nawk -F'|' 'NF>=8 && $8 == "" ' myPipeFile >nullFile.txt