Need help in arranging data

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I have a file with user activity and need to display only the start and end timestamp of the activity. I don't know how can we write an logic for this please help me in a bettr way to work on it

 
User                         Activity_log
 -----------------------------------
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.333
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.333
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.348
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.348
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.365
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.365
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.379
 Auto_Generated      2014-08-17 15:25:03.379
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:50.273
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:50.313
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.433
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.91
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.922
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.938
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.952
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:54.982
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:55.022
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:26:02.26
 Jack   2014-08-17 15:26:02.28
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.206
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.246
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.337
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.386
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.446
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:43:43.795
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:43:59.876
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:43:59.888
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:43:59.916
 Kate   2014-08-19 11:43:59.941
 Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:31.306
 Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:37.892
 Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:38.779
 Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:38.798
 Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:38.82
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.574
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.577
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.578
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.587
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.595
 System      2014-08-24 07:00:35.618
 Kate   2014-12-23 08:22:17.949
 Kate   2014-12-23 08:22:17.958
 Kate   2014-12-23 08:22:17.989
 Kate   2014-12-23 08:22:18.013
Rita 2014-08-24 11:06:38.593
Rita 2014-08-24 11:06:44.816
Rita 2014-08-24 11:06:44.848
Rita 2014-08-24 11:06:44.862
Rita 2014-08-24 11:06:44.888

 
Required Output 
Jack   2014-08-17 15:25:50.273   2014-08-17 15:26:02.28
Kate   2014-08-19 11:12:31.206   2014-08-19 11:43:59.941 
Tom    2014-08-19 12:56:31.306   2014-08-19 12:56:38.82
Kate    2014-12-23 08:22:17.949   2014-12-23 08:22:18.013
Rita   2014-08-24 11:06:38.593   2014-08-24 11:06:44.888
2

Try

awk 'NF==3 && $1!=p{if(p)print pl; printf $0 OFS}NF==3{p=$1; pl=$2 FS $3}END{print pl}' infile

to skip line with string Auto_Generated try this

awk '/Auto_Generated/{next}NF==3 && $1!=p{if(p)print pl; printf $0 OFS}NF==3{p=$1; pl=$2 FS $3}END{print pl}' infile
3

Tried with a simple file but it didn't return any data

 
> cat sam.out
Avinash 2015-01-02-15.25.28.993000
Avinash 2015-01-02-15.25.29.018000
Avinash 2015-01-02-15.25.29.376000
Avinash 2015-01-02-15.25.29.388000

 
> awk 'NF==3 && $1!=p{if(p)print pl; printf $0 OFS}NF==3{p=$1; pl=$2 FS $3}END{print pl}' sam.out
4

No surprise, data format in post #1 and post #3 are not same

Try this

 awk '$1!=p{if(p)print pl; printf $0 OFS}{p=$1; pl=$2}END{print pl}' infile
1 Like
5

Slight variation to Akshay's approach:

awk 'NR<3{next} $1!=p{if(p)print s, r; s=$0; p=$1} {r=$2 OFS $3} END{print s, r}'  file

--
Note, when using printf it is best to not leave printf's format field open, so printf "%s ", $0 , or printf "%s", $0 OFS rather than printf $0 OFS

6

Lazydev, is the data ordered by user and by time? Or was that just the sample you provided?

Variation to Scrutinizer approach for ordered by time, but not by user (aka, a logfile) data, an awkscript (with whitespace!) for your consideration:

BEGIN {
  skip["Auto_Generated"];
  skip["System"];
}

$1 in skip { next; }
           { et[$1] = $2; }
$1 in user { next; }
           { user[$1]; st[$1] = $2; }

END        { for (u in user) print u, st, et; }

If the data has the date and time in two fields, change $2 to $2 FS $3 or to $2 OFS $3 .