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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Text file to CSV with field data separated by blank lines Post 302608577 by vestport on Sunday 18th of March 2012 12:49:47 AM
Old 03-18-2012
Text file to CSV with field data separated by blank lines

Hello,

I have some data in a text file where fields are separated by blank lines. There are only 6 fields however some fields have several lines of data as I will explain. Also data in a particular field is not consistently the same size but does end on a blank line. The first field start with the number 12 so I can use that as a start/stop point I guess but it has been a while and I forgot much of my shell scripting. Here is an example and what I need to do:
Code:
12 ABC5

01/01/2012 NameOfCity

Street Address

Person 1
Person 1 continued
Person 1 extra data

Person 2

12 ABC6

01/01/2012 NameOfCity

Street Address
Street Address continued
Street Address extra

Person 1

Person 2
Person 2 extra data

12 ABC7

01/01/2012 NameOfCity

.........and so on

What I want it to look like delimited for CSV use is:
Code:
12 ABC5;01/01/2012 NameOfCity;Street Address;Person 1,Person1 continued, Person1 extra data;Person 2
12 ABC6;01/01/2010 NameOfCity;StreetAddress;Person 1;Person 2, Person2 extra data
12 ABC7;....and so on........to the end of file.

In a perfect world I would like to delimit the date from city name like so:
Code:
12 ABC5;01/01/2012;NameOfCity;Street Address;Person 1,Person1 continued, Person1 extra data;Person 2
12 ABC6;01/01/2010;NameOfCity;StreetAddress;Person 1;Person 2, Person2 extra data
12 ABC7;....and so on........to the end of file.

So you see the problem is that Address, Person 1 and Person 2 can just be one line or may have many lines (up until a blank line) but that is not the same for every field every time. Just need to get this stuff all on single lines so I can import into excel or MYSQL etc.

Preferably I would like to do this with sed and loop in common bash script as my current script that got me this far is in bash. I'll take anything at this point though even if I have to call another program.

Thanks in advance for any replies!


Art

Last edited by Franklin52; 03-18-2012 at 10:52 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags for data and code samples, thank you
 

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JOIN(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   JOIN(1)

NAME
join - relational database operator SYNOPSIS
join [ options ] file1 file2 DESCRIPTION
Join forms, on the standard output, a join of the two relations specified by the lines of file1 and file2. If file1 is `-', the standard input is used. File1 and file2 must be sorted in increasing ASCII collating sequence on the fields on which they are to be joined, normally the first in each line. There is one line in the output for each pair of lines in file1 and file2 that have identical join fields. The output line normally con- sists of the common field, then the rest of the line from file1, then the rest of the line from file2. Fields are normally separated by blank, tab or newline. In this case, multiple separators count as one, and leading separators are dis- carded. These options are recognized: -an In addition to the normal output, produce a line for each unpairable line in file n, where n is 1 or 2. -e s Replace empty output fields by string s. -jn m Join on the mth field of file n. If n is missing, use the mth field in each file. -o list Each output line comprises the fields specified in list, each element of which has the form n.m, where n is a file number and m is a field number. -tc Use character c as a separator (tab character). Every appearance of c in a line is significant. SEE ALSO
sort(1), comm(1), awk(1) BUGS
With default field separation, the collating sequence is that of sort -b; with -t, the sequence is that of a plain sort. The conventions of join, sort, comm, uniq, look and awk(1) are wildly incongruous. 7th Edition April 29, 1985 JOIN(1)
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