sort script Post: 302713531

Sponsored Content

Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting sort script Post 302713531 by LMHmedchem on Wednesday 10th of October 2012 11:56:39 PM

10-11-2012

Registered User

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim mcnamara

IMO: your idea lacks merit.

You should simply insert the data into a db with a loader, then produce output. If you have Excel you have MS office and probably a db like Access. UNIX has free db's: mysql, Berekely db, etc.

So, Why does your idea look like reinventing the wheel?

The reason is that Don Cragun is right. You have to have complete metadata for each and every column to be able to sort based on arbitrary column selections. And there is too much metadata to cobble together anything useful in shell. Metadata can change. db's are meant for that contingency.

The way it is now, you have to know what you are sorting by looking at it - in effect gathering metadata. You have to use human intelligence to make decisions. Then use unix sort/Excel sort. Databases are meant to do this. You just tell db's to sort on column names, optionally: ascending or descending for each column. You can write database scripts (SQL language for example) to do stats or a lot of what you already can do in Excel.

So, stay in Excel or move to a db. I vote for a db.

Yes, a database would be nice. I am in the process of working on a database system for some of this data, but there are non-trivial issues with other parts of it not related to this, so I am finishing what I am working on using some scripting tools that I already have. The sorting is the only part of the process that is not already scripted, so I am having to open each file in excel, set up a sort, save the file, and then do some shell to get the txt file back to linux land. All of these sorts are on ints and in ascending order. I have a few hundred to do, so after the first several, I started thinking that there had to be a better way.

I am in one of those situations where the choice is between slogging through an inefficient process, or taking allot of time to set up the correct process. I don't know SQL at all, so I am reluctant to spend days getting all of that set up when the sort function is the only thing that I can't automate. Of course, after taking the time to learn and set it up, I would have learned more tools, and that is not a small thing in any way. Eventually I will do all of the steps I am doing now with SQL queries out of SQLite, using ruby scripts to populate the database (and eventually a browser interface). For now, someone is waiting on the results for this and I need to get it done as quickly as possible. Even if I have to hard code modify a separate script for each sorting criteria, that will still be much faster than all the excel, especially since I have to modify the resulting excel file. I will have to do this process again with other data, so once the scripts are set up, I should be able to automate the entire process.

I was thinking that if I was going to set up a sort script, I might as well try to make is a general a tool as possible so that it could be useful for other things. It does appear that there is allot of possible variation in how the script would need to operate in different cases, so perhaps my thinking was not realistic. Never the less, it would be a significant help with my current project and would not need to be generalized for that purpose.

LMHmedchem

LMHmedchem

View Public Profile for LMHmedchem

Find all posts by LMHmedchem

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

sort utility in script ?

Hi friends, I want to use sort command in script. I used the following syntax in my scipt, sort -t '|' +3 tempcdrext4.cdr > temp.mocdr It give me a error " Input file specified two times." but this command work fine in the prompt without any problem. Can sombody please tell me who...

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

sort script/command

ok. i am doing a project where i have hand typed in the titles of nearly 500 DVD titles, each one is on a seperate line. but they arent in any type of alphebetical order, and i need them sorted in that format (A-Z or a-z) ..... i know that the 'sort' command can be used but also know the...

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Script to sort data

Hi All, I have a .csv file with 3 columns called nLats, nLongs, and fRes. in following format : "nLats","nLongs","fRes" 0,0,-1 0,1,-1 0,2,-1 0,3,-1 0,4,-1 ......... ......... 0,143,-1 nLats increments at nLongs=143 1,0, -1 1,1, -1 .......... .......... 1,143,-1...

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Using sort with awk script

I have a file with four fields and an awk script that strips out one field displaying the remaining three. I have added headings for each of these fields such as Player - Year - RBIs then below it comes the data. What I am trying to do is sort the RBIs field in my script from most to least at the...

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

need Unix script to sort

Hi i have a file like this oprvdw vrc002093j.ksh oprvdw vrc002092j.ksh oprvrc vrc045016j.ksh oprvrc vrc055141j.ksh svemietl bdw0231185.sh svemietl bdw0231145.sh and i need a script which dispalys in below format: oprvdw : vrc002093j.ksh vrc002092j.ksh oprvrc :...

6. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Script to sort the files and append the extension .sort to the sorted version of the file

Hello all - I am to this forum and fairly new in learning unix and finding some difficulty in preparing a small shell script. I am trying to make script to sort all the files given by user as input (either the exact full name of the file or say the files matching the criteria like all files...

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

sort script

hi guys i looking for someone to help me with a script i want to sort all de files from /bin by size (from max to min) and the size and path of first 3 files to be written in /home/user/bin_size .And i want to put that script in crontab to execute every monday at 20:00 Can someone help me...

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Sort help: How to sort collected 'file list' by date stamp :

Hi Experts, I have a filelist collected from another server , now want to sort the output using date/time stamp filed. - Filed 6, 7,8 are showing the date/time/stamp. Here is the input: #---------------------------------------------------------------------- -rw------- 1 root ...

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Script to Sort into columns

Hi geeks! I want to convert the following: EPC-NotificationData: sms:2348034503643 EPC-GroupIds: 300H:10:22-01-2014T07:30:14,22-04-2014T07:30:14 To: EPC-NotificationData: sms:2348034503643, EPC-GroupIds: 300H:10:22-01-2014T07:30:14,22-04-2014T07:30:14 I want them to be on the same...

10. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Shell script to call and sort awk script and output

I'm trying to create a shell script that takes a awk script that I wrote and a filename as an argument. I was able to get that done but I'm having trouble figuring out how to keep the header of the output at the top but sort the rest of the rows alphabetically. This is what I have now but it is...

LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

test::excel::template::plus

Test::Excel::Template::Plus(3pm)			User Contributed Perl Documentation			  Test::Excel::Template::Plus(3pm)

NAME

       Test::Excel::Template::Plus - Testing module for use with Excel::Template::Plus

SYNOPSIS

	 use Test::More tests => 1;
	 use Test::Excel::Template::Plus;

	 my $template = Excel::Template::Plus->new(
	     engine   => 'TT',
	     template => 'test.tmpl',
	     config   => { INCLUDE  => [ '/templates' ] },
	     params   => { ... }
	 );
	 $template->write_file('test.xls');

	 # compare the file we just made with
	 # an existing example file ...
	 cmp_excel_files("test.xls", "t/xls/test.xls", '... the excel files matched');

DISCLAIMER

       This module is woefully incomplete. It works for my very basic purposes right now, but it is surely going to need lots or work in the
       future to make it really usable.

DESCRIPTION

       This module attempts to provide a means of testing and comparing dynamically generated excel files. Currently it only supports comparing
       two excel files for some approximation of strutural (values within cells) and visual (formatting of said cells) equivalence.

       As a by product of the implementation, elements may get compared which don't really need comparing, and things which do need comparing may
       be skipped. This will get refined as time goes by and the module is used in more heavyweight situations.

FUNCTIONS

       cmp_excel_files($file1, $file2, $msg)

BUGS

       All complex software has bugs lurking in it, and this module is no exception. If you find a bug please either email me, or add the bug to
       cpan-RT.

AUTHOR

       Stevan Little <stevan@iinteractive.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 2007-2010 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.

       <http://www.iinteractive.com>

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.14.2							    2012-05-06					  Test::Excel::Template::Plus(3pm)

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

sort utility in script ?

Discussion started by: maheshsri

2. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

sort script/command

Discussion started by: Chadbot

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Script to sort data

Discussion started by: wizardy_maximus

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Using sort with awk script

Discussion started by: Trellot