Try REXX: (I used REXX for various things for over 20 years (Linux, Windows & Mainframe) Download Regina REXX http://regina-rexx.sourceforge.net/ convert.cmd = REXX program NameAddress.txt = input file converted.txt = output file -- Duaine Hechler Piano, Player Piano, Pump Organ Tuning, Servicing & Rebuilding Associate Member of the Piano Technicians Guild Reed Organ Society Member St. Louis, MO 63034 (314) 838-5587 dahechler@charter.net www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com -- Home & Business user of Linux - 9+ years #!/usr/bin/rexx /* */ DO FOREVER recin = LINEIN('NameAddress.txt') IF recin = "" THEN EXIT /* ***** convert all to upper case ***** */ UPPER recin /* ***** breakdown by fields ***** */ name = SUBSTR(recin,1,20) address = SUBSTR(recin,21,20) city = SUBSTR(recin,41,20) state = SUBSTR(recin,61,10) zip = SUBSTR(recin,71,20) /* ***** convert name to last name, first name ***** */ name = word(name,2)||", "||word(name,1) /* ***** convert city state zip to mailing format ***** */ csz = word(city,1)||", "||word(state,1)||" "||word(zip,1) /* ***** build output record ***** */ recout = "" recout = OVERLAY(name,recout,1,20) recout = OVERLAY(address,recout,21,20) recout = OVERLAY(csz,recout,41,40) call LINEOUT 'converted.txt', recout END /* DO */ EXIT HECHLER, DUAINE 1013 JUSTICE CT. FLORISSANT, MO 63034 HECHLER, KEVIN 1023 JUSTICE CT. HAZELWOOD, MO 63034 CRUISE, TOM 1033 JUSTICE CT. DELLWOOD, MO 63034 Duaine Hechler 1013 Justice Ct. Florissant MO 63034 Kevin Hechler 1023 Justice Ct. Hazelwood MO 63034 Tom Cruise 1033 Justice Ct. Dellwood MO 63034

Try REXX: (I've used REXX for various things for over 20 years (Linux, Windows & Mainframe) Download Regina REXX http://regina-rexx.sourceforge.net/ Sample program and files: #!/usr/bin/rexx /* */ DO FOREVER recin = LINEIN('NameAddress.txt') IF recin = "" THEN EXIT /* ***** convert all to upper case ***** */ UPPER recin /* ***** breakdown by fields ***** */ name = SUBSTR(recin,1,20) address = SUBSTR(recin,21,20) city = SUBSTR(recin,41,20) state = SUBSTR(recin,61,10) zip = SUBSTR(recin,71,20) /* ***** convert name to last name, first name ***** */ name = word(name,2)||", "||word(name,1) /* ***** convert city state zip to mailing format ***** */ csz = word(city,1)||", "||word(state,1)||" "||word(zip,1) /* ***** build output record ***** */ recout = "" recout = OVERLAY(name,recout,1,20) recout = OVERLAY(address,recout,21,20) recout = OVERLAY(csz,recout,41,40) call LINEOUT 'converted.txt', recout END /* DO */ EXIT ----- input file ----- Duaine Hechler 1013 Justice Ct. Florissant MO 63034 Kevin Hechler 1023 Justice Ct. Hazelwood MO 63034 Tom Cruise 1033 Justice Ct. Dellwood MO 63034 ----- output file ----- HECHLER, DUAINE 1013 JUSTICE CT. FLORISSANT, MO 63034 HECHLER, KEVIN 1023 JUSTICE CT. HAZELWOOD, MO 63034 CRUISE, TOM 1033 JUSTICE CT. DELLWOOD, MO 63034 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Dr. Werner Fink wrote:

On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 01:10:16AM -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:

...

Listmates,

I stumbled on a problem trying to read a file (email mailbox) line-by-line in bash. Using the built-in read, it strips the leading whitespace from each line making the subsequent write impossible. I was using a while loop as follows:

{ while read XTAG VALUE LINE; do if [[ ${XTAG} == "X-Mozilla-Status:" ]]; then case ${VALUE} in <snip>

All of the lines in the mailbox with leading whitespace were written without the leading whitespace like:

Just use the IFS variable.

while IFS=$'\n' read line ; do if [[ $line =~ ^X-Mozilla-Status: ]] ; then value=${line#*:} value=${value%%[[:blank:]]*} case $value in 1019 ) line=${line/1019/1011} ;; 1009 ) line=${line/1009/1001} ;; 001b ) line=${line/001b/0013} ;; 0019 ) line=${line/0019/0011} ;; 000b ) line=${line/000b/0003} ;; 0009 ) line=${line/0009/0001} ;; esac fi echo "$line" >> ${NEWFILE} done < ~/.thunderbird/2k12pnl0.default/Mail/pop.suddenlinkmail.com/openSuSE.sav

<snip>

Werner

Thank you Dr. Fink, Patrick, Brian and Per, This is exactly what I was trying to do. I had been over the Parameter Expansion section of man bash several times, but could not figure out how to put the pieces of the puzzle together. This hit the nail on the head. The sed example was something I had looked at but decided against due to the overhead of repeated sed calls ( 3,869,388 times adds up ). The IFS environment discussion was also good learning as I routinely used OLDIFS to hold and reset the IFS variable, many times when it wasn't needed. Thanks again! -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 02:01:53PM -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:

Werner,

I have a question. Is the value=${value%%[[:blank:]]*} right? It looks like it is deleting everything in the parameter $value.

... normally the `*' in bash means not `match a sequence of 0 or more of the atom' but simply `Matches any string, including the null string'. Nevertheless bash 3.2.x understands the regular expression `[[:blank:]]' which is a space or a tab.

Testing yields:

if [[ $line =~ ^X-Mozilla-Status: ]] ; then echo -e "line = $line" value=${line#*:} echo -e "\tvalue=\${line#*:} = '$value'" value=${value%%[[:blank:]]*} echo -e "\t\${value%%[[:blank:]]*} = '$value'\n"

line = X-Mozilla-Status: 0009 value=${line#*:} = ' 0009' ${value%%[[:blank:]]*} = ''

Yes your're right the patterb matches all blanks followed by a string.

Shouldn't it be value=${value##[[:blank:]]} ? Doing this way yields the intended result:

line = X-Mozilla-Status: 0009 value=${line#*:} = ' 0009' ${value%%[[:blank:]]*} = '0009'

Also, couldn't we eliminate the second value expression altogether by including the [[:blank:]] in the first value expression like this:

value=${line#*:[[:blank:]]} which yields:

line = X-Mozilla-Status: 0009 value=${line#*:[[:blank:]]} = '0009'

Are there some gotchas in there? Just curious. Perhaps it was just slyly meant for additional learning....

learning means just doit ;) Werner -- "Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool." -- Edward Burr -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

* Brian K. White [09-04-08 06:35]:

Becomes this:

DONE=false until $DONE ;do IFS="" read || DONE=true [...] done <infile >outfile

Shouldn't you clean-up after yourself and reset the $IFS to it's expected value? -- Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA HOG # US1244711 http://wahoo.no-ip.org Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 Registered Linux User #207535 @ http://counter.li.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Shanahan" To: Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 7:47 AM Subject: Re: [opensuse] BASH - howto 'read' line in file and preserve leading whitespace?

* Brian K. White [09-04-08 06:35]:

...

Becomes this:

DONE=false until $DONE ;do IFS="" read || DONE=true [...] done <infile >outfile

Shouldn't you clean-up after yourself and reset the $IFS to it's expected value?

Nope. There is nothing to clean up. IFS has not been changed. When a variable is set in this manner, on the same line as, and preceding, a command, it only affects the environment of the command, not the current environment. Try this: FOO=yes FOO=no eval 'echo $FOO' echo $FOO FOO=yes affects the current environment FOO=no affects only the environment of "eval..." You need this eval syntax as a way to enclose $FOO in single-quotes to keep the current shell from expanding $FOO itself before handing it to echo. If you say for instance: FOO=yes FOO=no echo $FOO It will say "yes" , which may confuse the heck out of you. What happens in that case is, the current environment has FOO=yes Then we set FOO=no in echo's environment, but we never see that because "echo $VARIABLE" does not resolve VARIABLE out of echo's own environment. echo just echos things from it's command line. echo's command line was assembled by our current shell, which expanded $FOO from IT'S environment before invoking echo. A clearer example may be: FOO=yes FOO=no awk 'BEGIN{print ENVIRON["FOO"]}' http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++. filePro BBx Linux SCO FreeBSD #callahans Satriani Filk! -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org