Hi everyone I have some data like this: something:01/01/1980:something something-else:12/05/1993:foobar another-something:32/01/2012:barfoo etc In other words, it's a colon delimited file in which the second field is a date in the form dd/mm/yyyy. How do I sort the whole file in date order by the second field? I can see that 'sort -k' allows me to pick the positional part of the fields and -t allows me to pick the delimiter. But I can't work out how to combine them so that the whole file is sorted. Thanks Richard
On 17 Feb 12:51, Richard Parsons wrote:
Hi everyone
I have some data like this:
something:01/01/1980:something something-else:12/05/1993:foobar another-something:32/01/2012:barfoo etc
In other words, it's a colon delimited file in which the second field is a date in the form dd/mm/yyyy.
How do I sort the whole file in date order by the second field? I can see that 'sort -k' allows me to pick the positional part of the fields and -t allows me to pick the delimiter. But I can't work out how to combine them so that the whole file is sorted.
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#'file | sort -d ":" -k 2 Should work. Note that's entirely untested and may eat your cat though. -- Brett Parker http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ PGP Fingerprint 1A9E C066 EDEE 6746 36CB BD7F 479E C24F 95C7 1D61
On 17-Feb-11 13:30:53, Brett Parker wrote:
On 17 Feb 12:51, Richard Parsons wrote:
Hi everyone
I have some data like this:
something:01/01/1980:something something-else:12/05/1993:foobar another-something:32/01/2012:barfoo etc
In other words, it's a colon delimited file in which the second field is a date in the form dd/mm/yyyy.
How do I sort the whole file in date order by the second field? I can see that 'sort -k' allows me to pick the positional part of the fields and -t allows me to pick the delimiter. But I can't work out how to combine them so that the whole file is sorted.
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2
Should work. Note that's entirely untested and may eat your cat though.
It will eat the cat. There needs to be a pipe into a further 'sed' to undo the reversal of dd/mm/yyyy to yyyy/mm/dd: sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2 | sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' Ted. (PS: The spillover of "file" is due to my mailer line length) -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding@wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 17-Feb-11 Time: 14:40:39 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 02:40:42PM -0000, Ted Harding wrote:
On 17-Feb-11 13:30:53, Brett Parker wrote:
Should work. Note that's entirely untested and may eat your cat though.
It will eat the cat. There needs to be a pipe into a further 'sed' to undo the reversal of dd/mm/yyyy to yyyy/mm/dd:
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2 | sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#'
Thanks both of you for your helpful input. Richard
On 17 Feb 14:40, Ted Harding wrote:
On 17-Feb-11 13:30:53, Brett Parker wrote:
On 17 Feb 12:51, Richard Parsons wrote:
Hi everyone
I have some data like this:
something:01/01/1980:something something-else:12/05/1993:foobar another-something:32/01/2012:barfoo etc
In other words, it's a colon delimited file in which the second field is a date in the form dd/mm/yyyy.
How do I sort the whole file in date order by the second field? I can see that 'sort -k' allows me to pick the positional part of the fields and -t allows me to pick the delimiter. But I can't work out how to combine them so that the whole file is sorted.
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2
Should work. Note that's entirely untested and may eat your cat though.
It will eat the cat. There needs to be a pipe into a further 'sed' to undo the reversal of dd/mm/yyyy to yyyy/mm/dd:
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2 | sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#'
Dates should be in YYYY-MM-DD format anyways - it's better, I deliberately didn't convert it back, it's less ambiguous this way. I was improving the input, obviously! Sheesh ;) -- Brett Parker http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ PGP Fingerprint 1A9E C066 EDEE 6746 36CB BD7F 479E C24F 95C7 1D61
On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 02:53:31PM +0000, Brett Parker wrote:
Dates should be in YYYY-MM-DD format anyways - it's better, I deliberately didn't convert it back, it's less ambiguous this way. I was improving the input, obviously!
Thanks. Unfortunately, the format of the data isn't my choice. Thanks again. Richard
On 17 Feb 14:40, Ted Harding wrote:
On 17-Feb-11 13:30:53, Brett Parker wrote:
On 17 Feb 12:51, Richard Parsons wrote:
Hi everyone
I have some data like this:
something:01/01/1980:something something-else:12/05/1993:foobar another-something:32/01/2012:barfoo etc
In other words, it's a colon delimited file in which the second field is a date in the form dd/mm/yyyy.
How do I sort the whole file in date order by the second field? I can see that 'sort -k' allows me to pick the positional part of the fields and -t allows me to pick the delimiter. But I can't work out how to combine them so that the whole file is sorted.
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2
Should work. Note that's entirely untested and may eat your cat though.
It will eat the cat. There needs to be a pipe into a further 'sed' to undo the reversal of dd/mm/yyyy to yyyy/mm/dd:
sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#' file | sort -d ":" -k 2 | sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9]\)/\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\):#:\3-\2-\1:#'
EWRONG! The last sed there should be... sed -e 's#:\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\)-\([0-9][0-9]\)-\([0-9][0-9]\):#:\3/\2/\1:#' So there, ner ner ner ner ner ner! -- Brett Parker http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ PGP Fingerprint 1A9E C066 EDEE 6746 36CB BD7F 479E C24F 95C7 1D61
participants (3)
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Brett Parker -
Richard Parsons -
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