topic Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file in Operating System - HP-UX

Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

Anant — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:26:26 GMT

Hello,
I understand that this is not a scripting forum, but I believe this should be very easy for you experts.

First line of my file contains some data like this "abcdefg.xx 123 xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09"
Note that:
1) where I see "123" it will never be more than 4 characters. But it can be of zero characters too. Meaning it does not exist.
2) Line will always end with a date, so it will contain a character "/" in it.
3) What I am want to extract is the value "xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here". This could be of any length, any number of words, any characters.

Do any of you have a script/command to make this happen? Lets assume that filename is workfile.txt.

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:29:52 GMT

Hi:

# X="abcdefg.xx 123 xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09"

# Y="abcdefg.xx xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09"

# echo ${X}|perl -nle 'm{.+?\s+(\d+\s+)*(.+)} and print $2'
xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09

...and:

# echo ${Y}|perl -nle 'm{.+?\s+(\d+\s+)*(.+)} and print $2'
xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09

...which distinguishes rule-1.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

George Spencer_4 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:14:33 GMT

How about:

perl -ne 'print "$1\n" if /^[A-Za-z]+\.[0-9][0-9].* ([0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]\.[0-
9][0-9]\.11) .+ [0-1]?[0-9]\/[0-3]?[0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]$/' workfile.txt

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

Dennis Handly — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:22:28 GMT

>Do any of you have a script/command to make this happen?

You could use awk:
awk '
{
if (length($2) > 4) # optional field
start = 2
else
start = 3 # skip optional field
printf "%s", $start
for (i = start+1; i < NF; ++i)
printf " %s", $i
print ""
exit
}' workfile.txt.

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

Roland Piette — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:50:51 GMT

Hello Anant,

Try this also :

head -1 workfile.txt | sed 's/^.*123 $.*$$/\1/'

If "123" is not present in the line, the commands will give the entire line

If you need nothing when "123" is not present, insert before sed a grep command so you will have this :

head -1 workfile.txt | grep 123 | sed 's/^.*123 $.*$$/\1/'

Good luck,
Roland

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

David DiBiase — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:36:46 GMT

maybe simpler

Assuming a file named 'file' contains:
Please wait...checking for disk quotas
(c)Copyright 1983-2000 Hewlett-Packard Co., All Rights Reserved.

$ line $ echo $first
Please
$ echo $second
wait...checking for disk quotas
$ line $ echo $first
Please
$ echo $second
wait...checking
$ echo $rest_of_line
for disk quotas
$

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

Bob E Campbell — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:09:47 GMT

Are we making this too complex? If you are only looking for column 2 with space delimters:

# cat foo
abcdefg.xx 123 xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09
abcdefg.xx 13 xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09
abcdefg.xx xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09
abcdefg.xx 3 xx.yy.zz.11 There is some variable length text here 03/10/09
# cut -d\ -f2 foo
123
13

3

Re: Script for capturing only few values from the first line of a file

Anant — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:15:30 GMT

People responding to my questions, provided the necessary solutions. Thanks to all of them.