UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Greetings:

I generate an empty flat file just fine when there's no data returned from my process, as the customer wants one always (using the 1st line of the below script). However, they also want at least the column names in this flat file (row 1, the only row to be in the emply file). I'm attempting to use the sed "i" for inserting a new row with 3 column names in a single text string.

I'm not sure of the syntax for inserting a new row into an already empty file; it is even possible?

Thanks for any advice & guidance.

Code:

touch /TgtFiles/Test_File.csv;
sed ' i\ TransDate,Amount,AuthorizationNumber' /TgtFiles/Test_File.csv

You can simply "echo" the line you want to have there:

Code:

echo "TransDate,Amount,AuthorizationNumber" >> /TgtFiles/Test_File.csv

bartus11:

Yes, your solution worked fine...thank you so much. (I'll use tags around script in any future posts).

Also I would suggest to check if the file is empty. If yes, then write to it:

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

[ ! -s /TgtFiles/Test_File.csv ] && print "TransDate,Amount,AuthorizationNumber" > /TgtFiles/Test_File.csv

Ok Yoda, that is a good idea but then is your script above inplace of using the echo command?

You can use echo instead.

Yoda, good solution you provide. My universe is again in balance.