I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
I know how to read the file.
I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.

Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?

What do I search Google for?

TIA Dave

Dave Kelly wrote:
> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> I know how to read the file.
> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>
> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>

cut -c-12

--
Xicheng

On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> I know how to read the file.
> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>
> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?

To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:

awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'

If you only want lines where the thrid word contains at least 12
letters:

awk 'length($3) >=12 { printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'

If you want to process it in the shell:

word=qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm
mask=????????????
junk=${word#$mask}
printf "%s\n" "${word%"$junk"}"

In bash or ksh93:

printf "%s\n" "${word:0:12}"

For other POSIX shells, there is a substr() function in my book
that can do it. (I may previously have posted it here. All the
scripts from the book are available on line.)

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
>
>>I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>>I know how to read the file.
>>I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>>guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>
>>Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>
>
> To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:
>
> awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'
>

Actually, that'll print the first 12 characters of the 3rd string of
non-blanks. For the OP - what's a "word"? For example, in this context:

Bob says "Hi!".

is <"Hi!".> a word, or <"Hi!">, or <Hi!> or <Hi> or something else?

Ed

On 2006-08-22, Ed Morton wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>> On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
>>
>>>I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>>>I know how to read the file.
>>>I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>>>guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>>
>>>Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>
>>
>> To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:
>>
>> awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'
>>
>
> Actually, that'll print the first 12 characters of the 3rd string of
> non-blanks. For the OP - what's a "word"? For example, in this context:
>
> Bob says "Hi!".
>
> is <"Hi!".> a word, or <"Hi!">, or <Hi!> or <Hi> or something else?

Very true, but the OP did say there were 3 words per line. whatever
a word is.

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> On 2006-08-22, Ed Morton wrote:
>
>>Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>>
>>>On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>>>>I know how to read the file.
>>>>I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>>>>guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>>>
>>>>Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>>
>>>
>>> To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:
>>>
>>>awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'
>>>
>>
>>Actually, that'll print the first 12 characters of the 3rd string of
>>non-blanks. For the OP - what's a "word"? For example, in this context:
>>
>> Bob says "Hi!".
>>
>>is <"Hi!".> a word, or <"Hi!">, or <Hi!> or <Hi> or something else?
>
>
> Very true, but the OP did say there were 3 words per line. whatever
> a word is.
>

Right, but he didn't say if "words" were strictly space-separated (e.g.
is "space-separated" one word or 2 to the OP?).

Ed.

Ed Morton wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> > On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
> >
> >>I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> >>I know how to read the file.
> >>I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> >>guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
> >>
> >>Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
> >
> >
> > To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:
> >
> > awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'
> >
>
> Actually, that'll print the first 12 characters of the 3rd string of
> non-blanks. For the OP - what's a "word"? For example, in this context:
>
> Bob says "Hi!".
>
> is <"Hi!".> a word, or <"Hi!">, or <Hi!> or <Hi> or something else?

No big deal, just trim all non-word with one more pipeline or y|tr
commands.

--
XC

Dave Kelly wrote:
> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> I know how to read the file.
> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>
> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>
> What do I search Google for?
>
> TIA Dave

I did not provide enough information. My apologies.

I am developing a protected directory on my web server. This directory
will contain a membership list. If you are on the membership list you
can download the membership list.

I want the user name to be the first name and last name with no spaces
in between the 2 words. The password will be the format of the 1st 12
characters of the email address.

The membership is put together with excel, sent to me as a cvs file and
takes the form:

Kelly,Dave,10371 Renfaire
Drive,Plantersville,TX,77363,(936)xxx-1xx0,,,1/30/2001
0:00,daveekelly@xxxxxxxxx.net,R,6/30/2005 0:00,2005-2006,,

code I had started:

#!/bin/bash


main()
{
IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City" "State" \
"ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
"MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";

do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
}
make_list()
{
Email=cut -c12 "$email";
echo >> "$firstname""$lastname","$Email"
}
main

Im currently chasing this error "./pdlist.sh: line 14: -c12: command not
found"

Dave Kelly wrote:
> Dave Kelly wrote:
>> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>> I know how to read the file.
>> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>
>> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>
>> What do I search Google for?
>>
>> TIA Dave
>
> I did not provide enough information. My apologies.
>
> I am developing a protected directory on my web server. This directory
> will contain a membership list. If you are on the membership list you
> can download the membership list.
>
> I want the user name to be the first name and last name with no spaces
> in between the 2 words. The password will be the format of the 1st 12
> characters of the email address.
>
> The membership is put together with excel, sent to me as a cvs file and
> takes the form:
>
> Kelly,Dave,10371 Renfaire
> Drive,Plantersville,TX,77363,(936)xxx-1xx0,,,1/30/2001
> 0:00,daveekelly@xxxxxxxxx.net,R,6/30/2005 0:00,2005-2006,,
>
> code I had started:
>
> #!/bin/bash
>
>
> main()
> {
> IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City" "State" \
> "ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
> "MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";
>
> do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
> }
> make_list()
> {
> Email=cut -c12 "$email";
> echo >> "$firstname""$lastname","$Email"
> }
> main
>
> Im currently chasing this error "./pdlist.sh: line 14: -c12: command not
> found"

Email=$(echo "$email" | cut -c12)

Dave Kelly wrote:
> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> I know how to read the file.
> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>
> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>
> What do I search Google for?
>
> TIA Dave
Works great, Thanks guys.

This command line:

../pdlist.sh < TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist

#!/bin/bash


main()
{
IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City" "State" \
"ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
"MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";

do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
}
make_list()
{
lastname=$1;
firstname=$2;
email=$3;

Email=$(echo "$email" | cut -c-12)
echo "$firstname$lastname",$Email;
}
main

produced my own entry in the list as such.
Exactly what I wanted.


DaveKelly,daveekelly@e

again, Thanks
Dave

On Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:59:16 -0400, Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
[...]
> In bash or ksh93:
>
> printf "%s\n" "${word:0:12}"

And in zsh: $word[1,12]

> For other POSIX shells, there is a substr() function in my book
> that can do it. (I may previously have posted it here. All the
> scripts from the book are available on line.)

There's a substr function in awk, and there's expr.

awk 'BEGIN{print substr(ARGV[1], 1, 12); exit}' "$word"
expr "x$word" 'x\(.\{0,12\}\)'


--
Stephane

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Dave Kelly wrote:
> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> I know how to read the file.
> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>
> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>
> What do I search Google for?
>
> TIA Dave
Maybe you try this:
- --- your code ---
and then:
for string in list;
do echo ${string:0:12} # works for bash
done


b.r.,
- --
Stephan 'smg' Grein, <stephan at stephan minus rockt dot de>
http://stephangrein.de
GnuPG-Key-ID: 0xF8C275D4
FingerPrint: 5B6F 134A 189B A24D 342B 0961 8D4B 0230 F8C2 75D4
Geek by nature, Linux by choice.
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Dave Kelly wrote:
> Dave Kelly wrote:
>
>> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>> I know how to read the file.
>> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>
>> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>
>> What do I search Google for?
>>
>> TIA Dave
>
> Works great, Thanks guys.
>
> This command line:
>
> ./pdlist.sh < TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist
>
> #!/bin/bash
>
>
> main()
> {
> IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City" "State" \
> "ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
> "MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";
>
> do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
> }
> make_list()
> {
> lastname=$1;
> firstname=$2;
> email=$3;
>
> Email=$(echo "$email" | cut -c-12)
> echo "$firstname$lastname",$Email;
> }
> main
>
> produced my own entry in the list as such.
> Exactly what I wanted.
>
>
> DaveKelly,daveekelly@e
>
> again, Thanks
> Dave
>

awk -F, '{ printf "%s%s,%s\n", $1,$2,substr($3,1,12) }' <
TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist

would do the same.

Ed.

Ed Morton wrote:
> Dave Kelly wrote:
>> Dave Kelly wrote:
>>
>>> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>>> I know how to read the file.
>>> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>>> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>>
>>> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>>
>>> What do I search Google for?
>>>
>>> TIA Dave
>>
>> Works great, Thanks guys.
>>
>> This command line:
>>
>> ./pdlist.sh < TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist
>>
>> #!/bin/bash
>>
>>
>> main()
>> {
>> IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City"
>> "State" \
>> "ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
>> "MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";
>>
>> do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
>> }
>> make_list()
>> {
>> lastname=$1;
>> firstname=$2;
>> email=$3;
>> Email=$(echo "$email" | cut -c-12)
>> echo "$firstname$lastname",$Email;
>> }
>> main
>>
>> produced my own entry in the list as such.
>> Exactly what I wanted.
>>
>>
>> DaveKelly,daveekelly@e
>>
>> again, Thanks
>> Dave
>>
>
> awk -F, '{ printf "%s%s,%s\n", $1,$2,substr($3,1,12) }' <
> TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist
>
> would do the same.
>
> Ed.
Wouldn't that give me 'LastNameFirstName,Address' instead of
'FirstNameLastName,email'?

Would 'substr($10,1,12)' get me email?

Thanks for the feedback.
Dave

Dave Kelly wrote:
> Ed Morton wrote:
>
>> Dave Kelly wrote:
>>
>>> Dave Kelly wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
>>>> I know how to read the file.
>>>> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
>>>> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
>>>>
>>>> Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
>>>>
>>>> What do I search Google for?
>>>>
>>>> TIA Dave
>>>
>>>
>>> Works great, Thanks guys.
>>>
>>> This command line:
>>>
>>> ./pdlist.sh < TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist
>>>
>>> #!/bin/bash
>>>
>>>
>>> main()
>>> {
>>> IFS=, ; while read "LastName" "FirstName" "Address" "City"
>>> "State" \
>>> "ZipCode" "HomePh" "BusinessPh" "tmp" "DateJoined" "email" \
>>> "MembershipType" "RenewalDate" "MembershipYear" "Paid" "Notes";
>>>
>>> do make_list "$LastName" "$FirstName" "$email" ; done
>>> }
>>> make_list()
>>> {
>>> lastname=$1;
>>> firstname=$2;
>>> email=$3;
>>> Email=$(echo "$email" | cut -c-12)
>>> echo "$firstname$lastname",$Email;
>>> }
>>> main
>>>
>>> produced my own entry in the list as such.
>>> Exactly what I wanted.
>>>
>>>
>>> DaveKelly,daveekelly@e
>>>
>>> again, Thanks
>>> Dave
>>>
>>
>> awk -F, '{ printf "%s%s,%s\n", $1,$2,substr($3,1,12) }' <
>> TFF-Membership-8-19-06.csv > pdlist
>>
>> would do the same.
>>
>> Ed.
>
> Wouldn't that give me 'LastNameFirstName,Address' instead of
> 'FirstNameLastName,email'?
>
Yes. Switch $1 and $2 and replace $3 by $11.

> Would 'substr($10,1,12)' get me email?

Looks to me like it'd be $11.

Ed.

Dave Kelly <daveekelly@earthlink.net> writes:

> I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.

That's pretty ugly but works on ny POSIX shell and does not require
external aplications (thus fork + exec):

while [ $#WORD -gt 12 ]; do WORD="${WORD%?}"; done

--
Best regards, _ _
.o. | Liege of Serenly Enlightened Majesty of o' \,=./ `o
..o | Computer Science, Michal "mina86" Nazarewicz (o o)
ooo +--<mina86*tlen.pl>--<jid:mina86*jabber.org>--ooO--(_)--Ooo--