[kwlug-disc] bash question tab separated values

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:

> I'm reading lines from a tab-separated-value text file.  Ten values
> per line.  I'd like to load them into ten variables for further
> processing, then output.
>
> It ain't working for me.  Looks like the tabs are being silently
> dropped then my cut -f3, for example, returns the complete line.
>
> Some fields include spaces, so I'd rather continue to split on tabs.
> How do I keep the tabs?  How should I be reading these lines?
>

Can you process in awk?

If so, then just use:

awk -F"\t" '{print $1; ... something else; }' yourfile.txt

If you still insist on doing it in shell, then do this:

exec 3>&1 < file.txt
while true
do
  read LINE
  if [ "$?" != 0 ]; then  # It is an End Of File condition
    break
  fi

  FIELD0=`echo "$LINE" | awk -F"\t" '{print $1}'`
  FIELD1=`echo "$LINE" | awk -F"\t" '{print $2}'`
  FIELD2=`echo "$LINE" | awk -F"\t" '{print $2}'`

  echo $FIELD0
  echo $FIELD2
done
exec <&3 3<&-
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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