Trying to extract data from multiple files

[Ken Opersteny]

I'm trying to write a script that will extract several lines of information from multiple ascii files and then parse it to a single file.

I'm trying to get the FILENAME of the file and 1 or more lines that start off with "#Description:". The "Description" lines are not always on the same line number. I want the output file to read something like:

FILENAME DESCRIPTION

filename1 does whatever
filename2 checks whatever
also does whatever

Thanks in advance!

Ken

[Rodney Hills]

A simple "grep"-

grep "^#Description" yourfiles*

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Here's one method that takes advantage of the shell's read command.

read V1 V2 would read
#DESCRIPTION This is a test
and stuff "#DESCRIPTION" into V1 and everything else (because V2 is the last variable) into V2.

#!/usr/bin/sh

FILES="myfile1 myfile2 myfile3"
echo "FILENAME\tDESCRIPTION"
echo
for FILE in ${FILES}
do
grep -E -q "^#DESCRIPTION" ${FILE}
STAT=${?}
if [[ ${STAT} -eq 0 ]]
then #found
grep -E "^#DESCRIPTION" ${FILE} | while read V1 V2
do
echo "${FILE}\t${V2}"
done
fi
done

Note that we intentionally ignore ${V1} because it contains the known string "#DESCRIPTION".

[Ken Opersteny]

Thanks for the help.

Clay's script is exactly what I was trying to do.