change output format using ksh

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I have a script that reaches out to several systems and pulls back infomation in serveral files. I would like to take the infomation returned and reformat it so I can export it to excel.

Below is current output:

File1:item1:abc=1
File1:item2:efg
File2:item1:ab=1
File2:item2:efg
File2:item3:hij

I would like to reformat it to the following:

,File1,File2
item1,abc=1,ab=1
item2,efg,efg
item3,,hij

Any one have an easy way of doing that?

2

awk or shell are sufficient. You need to collect the file1/2 in one array, and the items in string-addressed arrays, and then at EOF regurgitate them.

3

Sounds about right however I really dont know awk, any suggestions or examples?

4

Not really an awk guy: AWK Arrays Explained with 5 Practical Examples (link removed)

bash does string-addressed-containers, too, closer to ksh, which I do not think went there. Also, ksh93 does associative arrays, same thing, and is often installed as dtksh or similar: Help -

Alternatively, you could chop the input up and annotate it for a sort, and reformat the sort output, with the elements in convenient order. For instance, you can write the file# to the sort prefixed with A and the item# parts as lines prefixed with B. In the bad old days, sort was the trick to this sort of problem, when there was tiny ram and much tape drive! COBOL has embedded sort, which can be invoker with a file or routine as input and as output.