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Select answers from multiple questions using shell script

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# 1  
Old 08-24-2014
Select answers from multiple questions using shell script
I have a text file in this format

Code:
Some lines....
Question no: 1

The question?

A. Answer 1
B. Answer 2
C. Answer 3
D. Answer 4

Answer:B
Some lines....

Question no: 2

The question? (choose 2)

A. Answer 1
B. Answer 2
C. Answer 3
D. Answer 4

Answer:C,D
Some lines....

Question no: 3

The question?

A. Answer 1
B. Answer 2
C. Answer 3
D. Answer 4
E. Answer 5

Answer:A
Some lines....

and so on..

There can be 3 correct answers and there could be 5 answers to choose from. The lines of the answers can also be multiple lines. What I wanted to do is to extract all correct answers like this (based on example above):

Code:
Question no: 1
B. Answer 2

Question no: 2
C. Answer 3
D. Answer 4

Question no: 3
A. Answer 1

How can I do this using shell script maybe...awk?

Thanks
# 2  
Old 08-24-2014
Try:
Code:
awk -F'[.,:]' '           # Use dot, command and colon as fields separator
  /^[A-E]\./ {            # Store the choices in array A with index the first field (letter A-E)
    i=$1
    $1=x
    A[i]=$0
  }
  /^Answer/ {             # If line starts with "Answer" then print the valid choices
    for(i=2; i<=NF; i++)
      print $i"." A[$i]
    print x               # Print an empty line
  }
  /^Question/             # If line starts with "Question" then print the question
' file

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 08-24-2014 at 07:05 AM..
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
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# 3  
Old 08-24-2014
Thank you Scrutinizer. It works.

It just that in the actual file, the format is really like this:

Code:
The question?

A. aaaaaa
B. bbbbb
C. ccccc
D. ddddddd

There is no word "answer" after the letter so when I run your script on the actual file, the first answer is showing the letter only. How can I fix this?

Thanks
# 4  
Old 08-24-2014
My suggestion is not relying on the word answer after the letter, so I don't understand what you mean. Can you provide a better sample?
# 5  
Old 08-24-2014
to be clearer the output is this:

Code:
QUESTION NO: 89
 B.

QUESTION NO: 90
 A.
B.  bbbbbbbbbbbb
E.  eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

QUESTION NO: 97
 B.

# 6  
Old 08-24-2014
And what is the input that should lead to that output?
# 7  
Old 08-24-2014
Here you go:

Code:
Some lines......
QUESTION NO: 89

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?

A. 0
B. 1
C. 4
D. 8

Answer: B
Explanation:

QUESTION NO: 90

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?


A. aaaaaaaaaaaa
B. bbbbbbbbbbbb
C. ccccccccccccc
D. dddddddddd
E. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Answer: A,B,E
Explanation:

QUESTION NO: 97

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq?

A. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
A. aaaaaaaaaaaa
B. bbbbbbbbbbbb
C. ccccccccccccc
D. dddddddddd
E. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Answer: B
Explanation:
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