ksh compare dates INSIDE a file (ie date A is > date B)

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

In KSH, I am pasting 2 almost identical files together and each one has a date and time on each line. I need to determine if the first instance of the date/time is greater than the 2nd instance of the date/time. If the first instance is greater, I just need to echo that line.

I thought I would need to change the dates/times to epoch seconds but I can't figure out how to do update every date/time in the files to epoch. I'm not even sure if this would be the best way. Below is a snip from the joined files:

 
AO          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:15     AO          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:15
AR          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-21 12:02:16     AR          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-21 12:02:16
AT          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-24 17:30:17     AT          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-22 19:30:17
AW          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-22 11:14:19     AW          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:19
AZ          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:20     AZ          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:20
BB          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:24     BB          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:24
BC          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-28 05:58:26     BC          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:26
BI          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-30 21:20:27     BI          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:27
BR          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-11 02:10:29     BR          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:29
BS          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:30     BS          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:30
CB          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-13 10:48:32     CB          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:32
CD          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:36     CD          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:36
CD080ID9    | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-01 23:00:38     CD080ID9    | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:38
CD082ID9    | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:40     CD082ID9    | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:40
CG          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:44     CG          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:44
CI          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:45     CI          | SYS.IO.LIB    | 2011-09-20 11:35:45

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

2

why don't you convert date/time to a numeric and compare:

2011-09-20 11:35:15

to

20110920113515
3

Wow, maybe I need to turn on my brain... it's always the obvious that eludes me! Thank you.

4

Convert the date to seconds and then compare to be more accurate!

date +%s -s "2011-09-20 11:35:15"
1316498715

--ahamed

5

try

date +%s -d "2011-09-20 11:35:15"