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How to delimit the fields of a input file which has special characters?

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# 1  
Old 03-01-2017
How to delimit the fields of a input file which has special characters?
Hi All, I am a newbie to Shell scripting. I have a requirement to Delimit the file fields of a Input file having special characters and spaces with ";".

Input File
Code:
 
----------------------------------
Server                    Port
----------------------------------
Local                      1001

-----------------------------------------
Name        Country        Count
-----------------------------------------
XXX          Bermuda        999

So my requirement is to get the output like,
Code:
Server;Port
Local;1001

Name;Country;Count
XXX;Bermuda;999

Kindly, Please help me to full-fill the requirement..

Thank you in advance
# 2  
Old 03-01-2017
Welcome to the forum; and: thanks for intuitively using code tags correctly!

Any preferred tools? As you didn't specify what to do with the dash lines, nor with the empty lines (one is suppressed, one is retained), try (exploiting a few of awk's internals and defaults):
Code:
awk '$1=$1' OFS=";" file
----------------------------------
Server;Port
----------------------------------
Local;1001
-----------------------------------------
Name;Country;Count
-----------------------------------------
XXX;Bermuda;999


EDIT: to remove the dash lines, expand like
Code:
awk '($1=$1) && 1-sub(/--*/,_)' OFS=";" file
Server;Port
Local;1001
Name;Country;Count
XXX;Bermuda;999

These 2 Users Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
rbatte1 Suganbabu
# 3  
Old 03-02-2017
Thanks for the quick reply Rudic. I will try

---------- Post updated 03-02-17 at 06:01 PM ---------- Previous update was 03-01-17 at 09:03 PM ----------

When executed i am getting the below error
Code:
awk: syntax error near line 1
awk: bailing out near error 1

# 4  
Old 03-02-2017
Assuming your OS - which you failed to mention - is SunOS or Solaris:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Cragun
If you are using a Solaris/SunOS system, use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk or nawk instead of awk.
This User Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
Suganbabu
# 5  
Old 03-03-2017
Thanks Rudic.. It worked. Can you please help me if the country name is

Code:
Saudi Arabia

I am getting it output as
Code:
Saudi;Arabia

Sorry for changing the requirement. The output should be like
Code:
Server;Port;Name;Country;Count
Local;1001;XXX;South Africa;999

Last edited by Suganbabu; 03-03-2017 at 03:24 AM.. Reason: Requirement change
# 6  
Old 03-03-2017
That dependes on if and how fields are separated uniquely. If there is any chance that fields are separated by just one single space, you're doomed. If there's ALWAYS multiple spaces separating fields, change the field separator to sth. like " +".
This User Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
Suganbabu
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