Re: using sed to add text to csv file

On 04May2012 09:44, Gary Carr <[email protected]> wrote:
| Hello to all. This is my first post to this mailing list. 
| 
| I have a CSV file with thousands of lines that is laid out like such.
| 
| First,Last,Address,City,St,Zip,email,phone,dob,optindate,ipaddress,url
| Joey,Smith,12036 Address Lane,Beverly Hills,CA,90210,[email protected],2484865073,02/08/1962,4/2/2008 19:04:20,192.69.141.22,http://www.url.com/
| 
| I am trying to add text to the beginning of each table then change each line to the following
| 
| firstname=Joey&lastname=Smith&address=12036 Address Lane&
| 
| So basicallly I am trying to add the "headername=" text to the beginning
| of each row then replace the , with a & I know how to replace the comma
| I just can not figure out how to add the header text to the beginning
| of each line.

I would use awk for this, myself. Untested example:

  awk -v 'FS=,' -v 'OFS=&' 'NR > 1 { print "firstname=" $1, "lastname=" $2, }

extended tediously for all the fields. That's all on one line, should
your mailer fold things up.

In sed you could either write a horrendous regexp like this:

  s/^\([^,]*\),\([^,]*\),.../firstname=\1&lastname=\2&.../

extending it for all the columns (which will be hard to debug when you
have a small typo) or you could work progressively with a multiline sed
script, relying on there being no commas in the data:

  s/^\([^,]*\),/firstname=\1&/
  s/\&\([^,]*\),/lastname=\1&/
  s/\&\([^,]*\),/address=\1&/

extending as needed. That way the unadjusted columns in the output will
point the way to typos in the script.

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson <[email protected]> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Weakness is a better teacher than strength.  Weakness must learn to
understand the obstacles that strength brushes aside. - Mason Cooley