Shell Programming and Scripting

I/m a beginner so be easy. I have text files that live on an AIX server. The files come in and I've been charged with writing a shell script to email out that pulls the first date, and the last date of the file. I need to load these 2 dates into 2 separate variables. I can figure out the variables, but what I'm needing help on is what command to use and what syntax to pull the first and last date/time value for the 14th column in the text file. The columns are separated by a single tilde ~. This part is new to me, so I'd appreciate an experts assistance!

Thanks in advance,
Matt

What have you tried so far? Can you provide some sample input data/desired output data?

I haven't tried much in regards to printing this desired data. I'm hoping someone could tell me what command would be best to do this task, and possibly what parameters without being exact and doing it for me. Hope that helps.

How are you to determine the "first date" and "last date" from these two files?

eg

"first date" could be:
field #14 from 1st record of file 1
minimum value of field #14 from file 1 and file2

"last date" could be
field #14 from last record of file 2
maximum value of field #14 from file 1 and file2
most recent modification time of file1 and file2

In addition to what Chubler_XL has already said, if the dates to be used are based on the values in field #14 instead of being the dates on the 1st and last records in the file, you have to know the format of the date fields to determine how to perform the comparisons. And, if the values are to be extracted from the 1st and last data records in the file, we have to know if there are any header and/or trailer lines in the file.

This is why it is crucial that you give us a representative sample of the file(s) you will be processing.

Furthermore, you aren't at all clear about what tools are available for this project. You say the files you want to process are on a server. Will your script be run on that server while you are logged into that server? Will the files be located on one server while the script will be running on a different server?

The more details you hide from us, the less help we will be able to provide.

---------- Post updated at 09:15 AM ---------- Previous update was at 09:14 AM ----------

Chubler and don,
Thanks so much for your reply. I'll upload a sample file today. Thanks a million.

Here you go....i'm wanting to load a variable with the first and last column FirstExternalDateTime's values (last one would be 09032016011500PM) into an existing script. Please let me know if you have any ideas of how I can reference this particular file. See txt file attached.

Thanks in advance!