Format the Output

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hi-
Objective of the task is to print the lines which doesnt have a END statement corresponding to a START statement.

Let me know if anyone has a better way of doing is.

My Thoughts

Have 2 files one having START lines and another having END lines (sorted). And then diff the files to get the line which doesnt have an END statment.

Input


ABC;START
ABC;END
GHF;START
GHF;END
ABC;START
BHY;START
BHY;END

Output should be : ABC;START

since this doesnt have corresponding "ABC;END" line

2

Try...

awk '/END/{c=0}/START/{c++;if(c>1)print p;p=$0}' file1
3

please confirm at your end for this input

ABC;START
ABC;END
GHF;START
ABC;START
BHY;START

output:

# awk '/END/{c=0}/START/{c++;if(c>1)print p;p=$0}' file
GHF;START
ABC;START
4

Nice catch, simple to fix...

awk '/END/{c=0}/START/{c++;if(c>1)print p;p=$0}END{if(c>1)print p}' file1
5

how about this input:

ABC;START
GHF;START
GHF;END
BHY;START
BHY;END
ABC;END

output:

 # awk '/END/{c=0}/START/{c++;if(c>1)print p;p=$0}END{if(c>1)print p}' file
ABC;START
6

@OP, if you have Python and can use it, here's an alternative

d={}
for line in open("file"):
    first,second = line.strip().split(";")
    d.setdefault(first,[])
    d[first].append(second)
for i,j in d.iteritems():
    startcounts =j.count("START")
    endcounts = j.count("END")
    if startcounts != endcounts:
        print i,j

output:

# more file
ABC;START
GHF;START
BHY;START
BHY;END
ABC;END
# ./test.py
GHF ['START']
7

Well i think i should have explained more. The above code checks only for the START/END pattern. But the pattern prior is also important.

In the below case the awk will not return any rows. But it should have thrown as

ABC;START
BHY;START

Input

ABC;START
TTT;END
BHY;START
TTT;END

For every column1 ( ex: ABC ) there should be a START line and an END line ( END line need not necessary be the next line of START ) . If we dont have a END line for the column1 then we need to print that column1 (or the entire START line). Hope this explains.

Thanks for your inputs.

8

If you don't have Python, then try...

awk -F ';' '/END/{c[$1]=0}/START/{c[$1]++}END{for(i in c)if(c>0)print i}' file1
9

Not sure if you are looking for the imeediate START/STOP pattern:

awk -F ";" 'NR ==1 {prev=$1;st=$2;getline}{if ($1 == prev && $2 == "END"){getline;prev=$1;str=$2}else {print prev,str;prev=$1;str=$2};next}' file

awk -F ";" '{if ($1 == prev && $2 == "END"){getline;prev=$1;str=$2}else {print prev,str;prev=$1;str=$2};next}' file

cheers,
Devaraj Takhellambam