Homework & Coursework Questions

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data:
Display from a csv file, birthdays that occur today. If there are no birthdays today, the next one in the year.


2. Relevant commands, code, scripts, algorithms:
The csv file is ordered from older to younger (ie. the most recent birth is at the bottom of the list).


3. The attempts at a solution (include all code and scripts):
I can pull todays birthdays out by the following;

Code:

date=`date +"%m"`/`date +"%d"`
cat birthdays.csv | grep $date

However I'm having trouble finding where to start to echo the next birthday if there isn't one today. The CSV file has to be ordered as stated above.

4. Complete Name of School (University), City (State), Country, Name of Professor, and Course Number (Link to Course):
Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK, Paul Stephens, BSc Forensic Computing (Operating Systems 1)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Adzi

Increment the date, do another grep if still no output then increment it again?

How do I check if the out put is null?

I'm used to other languages such as VB etc so a logical port for me would be to do

Code:

if
$variable is null then
$date + 1
fi

However I'm pretty sure implementing this would give me horrible errors. So what would be the way to do this in linux/sage?

Many Thanks,
Adzi

Bourne, Korn and Bash compatible code:

Code:

if [ -z "${VARIABLE}" ]; then
  echo "VARIABLE is empty."
fi

From what I understand (I may be wrong for Im more french speaking native...):
your csv file has birth dates in sorted from older to most recent.
your code could show up a todays birthday if present but in no way help you find the next...
one possible way to start would be to sort the file on months (1rst) and day (2nd) (but are you allowed?)

looks like you will have to write an algorithm with a couple of loops...

Thanks for the replies. The CSV file is ordered by day and month now, listed as such...

Code:

name,telNo,birthday
test 1,123456789,1989/01/26
test 2,123456789,1986/01/27
test 3,123456789,1989/06/09
test 4,123456789,1901/08/15

Which means I should be able to get the next line by performing a simple iteration and adding one to the date field. I cant seem to get this to work. My bash logic isn't fantastic and there is probably a lot of glaring errors but this is what I have (which isn't working)...

Code:

#"/bin/bash
date=`date +"%m"`/`date +"%d"`
if [ -z "`cat birthday.csv | grep $date`" ]; then
$newDate=$date+1
$date=$newDate
else
echo cat birthday.csv | grep $date
fi

Am I going about this completely the wrong way?

You dont find a birthday that matches today, then what?
You are to write an algorithm using a loop (e.g. while....) until you find the next date after hoping you are not at EOF...

remember your will have to deal with changing months with your increment....

Good luck
Courage!