Shell Programming and Scripting

ctsgnd has picked up that your file is also sorted on 3rd field decending and is a much simpler solution (thanks). The additional code I have is to deal with a file that is only sorted on the 1st column.

Here is a explination of what it did for reference:

Code:

V&&V!=$1{print vval;V=x}

If this record has different key to Previous records (V) then print best result (vval) and set current key to blank

Code:

$1!=$2&&!V||$3<B{B=$3;V=$1; vval=$0}

If first 2 fields are different and (This is First record with this key OR 3rd field is better than previous best (B)) then save 3rd field into B, key into V and whole record into vval

Code:

END{print vval}

At end of document print best record found for last key.