[KLUG Members] Parsing a Text file

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> Hello all.. I was wondering what is the best way to Parse a fixed length
> text file in linux.. I have a file that is 900 Characters long and needs to
> be broken out into a comma or tab delimited file so I can then import it
> into another database application. The application does not handle fixed
> length files with no delimiters... For those of you in schools you may have
> something since this is a State SRSD file that I need to Parse.. but just
> wondering what I should use. 

AWK - installed on every single UNIX box ever - available for Win32 -
and has ZERO dependencies.

BEGIN {}
{
   $field1 = substr($0, 1, 10);
   $field2 = substr($0, 15, 5);
   printf("%s|%8.2f\n", $field1, $field2);
}
END {}

- then -

awk -f {myawkfile} < {myinputfile}

Fast and simple.