code to identify values in comma separated value file

Question

i want to parse a csv file in a shell script. I want to input the name of the file at the prompt. like :

somescript.sh filename

Can it be done?

Also, I will read user input to display a particular a particular data number in the csv. For example, say the csv file has 10 values in each line:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

And I want to read the 5th value. how can I do it? And multiple lines are involved.

Thanks.

possible duplicate of [Bash shell scripting - CSV parsing](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1560393/bash-shell-scripting-csv-parsing) [Shell script to parse thorough a file (csv) and process line by line](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4439536/shell-script-to-parse-through-a-file-csv-and-process-line-by-line) — Jacob, May 20 '11 at 06:32
Try using my FOSS CSV tool at http://code.google.com/p/csvfix — , May 20 '11 at 06:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 20 '11 at 06:56

2

If your file is really in such a simple format (just commas, no spaces), then cut -d, -f5 would do the trick.

answered May 20 '11 at 06:56

Fred Foo

Timofey Stolbov · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-20T12:06:57.530

1

#!/bin/sh

awk -F, "NR==$2{print \$$3}" "$1"

Usage:

./test.sh FILENAME LINE_NUMBER FIELD_NUMBER

edited May 20 '11 at 12:06

answered May 20 '11 at 06:43

Timofey Stolbov

how to account for the line no.? – amit May 20 '11 at 07:30
can you tell me what -F and NR mean? – amit May 20 '11 at 07:49
this is not working for me. i am typing this at the shell. it does nothing – amit May 20 '11 at 10:59
@amit: Of course. It's intended to work as `somescript.sh`. To use directly from command line type `awk -F, 'NR==6{print $5}' FILENAME_TO_PARSE`. – Timofey Stolbov May 20 '11 at 11:08
if i use it at the commandline, it works fine. but if i type the above code in a shell script and run it. it displays nothing. am i doing something wrong? – amit May 20 '11 at 11:27
im typing ./fetchvalue.sh newfile.csv 2 2 – amit May 20 '11 at 11:29
im typing exactly that. ./fetchvalue.sh newfile.csv 2 2 – amit May 20 '11 at 11:55
awk -F, 'NR==$2{print \$$3}' $1 + awk -F, NR==$2{print \$$3} newfile.csv syntax error The source line is 1. The error context is NR==$2{print >>> \ <<< $$3} awk: The statement cannot be correctly parsed. The source line is 1. – amit May 20 '11 at 11:57
i am using it exactly like you specified. still the error. the command is working fine. but when i put it inside a script, i cannot get teh results. please help? – amit May 23 '11 at 04:55

2 Answers2