file as input for script

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

how do I use a file (comma seperated) as an input for a script in bin/sh?

e.g.

I have a script that :

Input1=$1
Input2=$2
Input3=$3
Input4=$4

echo "$Input1, $Input2, $Input3,$Input4" (or some other function)

If I have a .csv file which lists many rows of input:

joe,5,john,10
pat,77,tim,88
etc... (Input1,Input2,Input3,Input4)

How do I use this file for the input of what ever I make the script do? The input will be changed frequently, so I would like to just edit the .csv file, and have the script update the info.

Thanks

2

As long as the number of fields are fixed (and there is no

whitespace in the fields), a quick script like

 #!/bin/sh

 while read line
 do
   nocommas=`echo $line | tr ',' ' '`
   set -- $nocommas
   echo "$1 $2 $3 $4"
 done < foo.csv

should do the job

If there is whitespace, then use awk

#!/bin/sh

while read line
do
  set -- `echo $line | awk -vFS=',' '{print $1,$2,$3,$4}'`
  echo "$1 $2 $3 $4"
done < foo.csv

Cheers
ZB