UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

For:- ..... surely this achieves the same much neater:-

Code:

cut -f5 -d "|" inputfile | sort -u

or if you prefer:-

Code:

cut -f5 -d "|" inputfile | uniq

Robin

Yes - and no. I gave two variants, the second of which is basically what you suggest here. The first one was meant as a blueprint in case there has to be something done while (instead of after) processing the input. One could add arbitrary statements to the while-loop as long as its output is preserved for the following pipeline. This is what was meant by "depending on what else you want to do".

bakunin

Code:

$ awk -F\| '{ F = $5".txt"; if(F in A)print $0 >>F; else print >F; A[F]; close(F)}' file

Can you explain more about this code?

-F\| --> Field Separator is set to pipe

F = $5".txt" --> Variable F is column5 record + suffix ".txt"

if(F in A) --> If variable F is already in Array A, meaning we seen in earlier line, then redirect and append to file thats is print $0 >>F.

else just redirect to file print $0 >F, this condition will be true when awk, reads 1st line of file, as Array A is not defined before if statement, and whenever, Array A seen new key that is F

A[F] --> Array A with index being F

close(F) --> Close file F