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Sorting a flat file based on multiple colums(using character position)

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Sorting a flat file based on multiple colums(using character position)
# 8  
Old 07-24-2006
I understand what you are trying to explain...But the main problem arises because a column is not distinguished based on spacing only. For example, Faroe Island can be a value of 1 column and as such, I require the use of char positions to distinguish between real columns...

Do you know of any way to sort multiple columns based on char position?
# 9  
Old 07-25-2006
Maybe I am not getting what you are trying to say. Could you explain it a bit more?
Quote:
For example, Faroe Island can be a value of 1 column
Faroe Island is being treated as 1 below.
Alpha,121,island
Alpha Zulu,21,island
Faroe Island,20,island
japan,19,airline
japan,19,test

I assumed that you mainly have 3 columns.
Text Number Text, columns are space separated but, because columns 1,3(text) can contain spaces, you can't use space as delimiter. Sed code above checks for space before & after column 2(Number) and changes it to ",". It ignores the spaces that occurs in 1st and 3rd. Once that's done, you can sort values using "," as delimiter. Most imp. assumption is that second column is number and is separated by space from 1st and 3rd.

I am not aware of sorting based on char position. If someone knows it I would be glad to learn.
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