Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,

I would be grateful for any assistance in my situation. As a new comer to UNIX, I have tried, but in vain, to search for scripts or methods for this problem.

I need to compare 2 files. A field in the master is to be tested for a match in the slave. Once a match is found, a variable stated in a field in the master is to be added to a new field in the slave.

To make things more confusing, the data in the slave cannot be sorted which rules out the 'paste' command. An illustration is shown.

master file
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O

slave file
X A V $4(F)
Z D Y $4(C)
U G T $4(I)

Field $2 in slave is to be tested for a match in master's field 1. Once matched, variables C F and I are to be copied to filed $4 into each respective line.

This problem has been bugging me for the past 3 days. I'd appreciate any advice.

Many Thanks in advance!!

how do you decide what letter (C, F or I) is to be added?
I think I'm missing something here - can you explain a bit clearer?

I apologise for the mistake - typing error. It is to show that Slave cannot be sorted. It should have been

master file
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O

slave file
X D V $4(F)
Z A Y $4(C)
U G T $4(I)


Slave line (X A V) field $2 is first tested for matching with field $1 of Master line (A B C). The testing, i believe, can be vice versa - master tested with slave

If both fields matched, the string/var in field $3 of Master is copied into a new field, $4, of Slave. If unmatched, it is left empty.

Thank you

Your explanation is confusing given the sample lines...., but I think that's what you want:

nawk -f zom.awk master slave

here's zom.awk:

Code:

NR == FNR { arr[$1]=$NF;next }
$2 in arr { $(NF+1) = arr[$2]}
1

Thank you very much for the fast reply. I would like to ask another question related to the first.

What if,

Master
$1 = Write(0xc001)

Slave
$2 = 0xc001

These fields, for my case, match due to similar hex codes. What should I do?

Thanks again.

pls post sample files - both master and slave - AND a desired output.

Attached are the sample master and slave files.
The desired outputs are commented in the slave file.

Thanks