Compare 2 flat files


 
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# 1  
Old 12-29-2009
cr

Hi Frnds,

I have a flat file with millions of records. .

Now I on this. (I prefer for AWK as its gives good performance.)

Old_file.txt
------------------
1 gopi ase ....
2 arun pl ...
3 jack sutha ..
4 peter pm ..
...

New_file.txt
---------------
4 peter pm ..
..

Outputfile.txt
2 arun pl ..
..

Last edited by Gopal_Engg; 02-19-2010 at 07:49 AM.. Reason: cr
# 2  
Old 12-29-2009
Code:-

Code:
nawk ' NR==FNR{a[$1]=$0 ; next} !a[$1] ' New_file.txt Old_file.txt > Output.txt

Code:
o/p:-

2 arun pl

SmilieSmilieSmilieSmilie
# 3  
Old 12-29-2009
Hi, I can see that You prefer AWK but the small program comm can also be very useful. I think it wouldn't barf on big files unless there are too many lines between diffs.

Example, this will show You the lines that does not exist in both files:
Code:
comm -3 oldfile.txt newfile.txt

So in the case of newfile.txt only having records removed, it would work.
Best regards,
Lakris
# 4  
Old 12-29-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lakris
Hi, I can see that You prefer AWK but the small program comm can also be very useful. I think it wouldn't barf on big files unless there are too many lines between diffs.

Example, this will show You the lines that does not exist in both files:
Code:
comm -3 oldfile.txt newfile.txt

So in the case of newfile.txt only having records removed, it would work.
Best regards,
Lakris
kindly ..but I didn't know that nawk or gawk will barf on big files!!!!
I only know that its limitation is the fields size only (columns)..
Is it right guys?
# 5  
Old 12-29-2009
MySQL

comm is the ideal candidate for doing the job. It is faster than awk.

Code:
$comm file_orig file_new
contents(only in file_orig)  contents(only in file_new)  contents (common)

ourput consists of three columns as shown.

You can skip the particular column by giving it's number as option to comm.
Code:
$comm -12 fileA fileB

skips both 1 & 2 and gives you the common contents of both files. (3 row)

For your job the command would be:
Code:
$comm  -23 orig_file new_file

gives the list of deleted records in new_file.
Code:
Assumptions made:
orig_file : file containing all the records
new_file : subset of orig_file. some records are deleted from this.

row 1 : contains the elements unique to file_orig (not there in file_new)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
14341

Last edited by 14341; 12-29-2009 at 08:42 AM..
# 6  
Old 12-29-2009
14341:- I thought that the issue is awk will barf
on big files, not that "comm" is faster on execution than awk; I know that shell commands always faster than external ones.

I hope I had clear the issue.
and still I don't know if awk has limitation on file raw or columns sizes.

BR
# 7  
Old 12-29-2009
awk has some limitation.
eg.
Code:
Number of fields per record	100
Characters per input record	3000
Characters per output record	3000
Characters per field	1024
Characters per printf string	3000
Characters in literal string	400
Characters in character class	400
Files open	15
Pipes open	1


though, gawk,mawk and other latest version are the alternatives for these limitations.

reference - Orelly - sed & awk ch 10.8 Limitations

just wanted to share this info.
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