Running search and replace for only certain values using bash shell

Question

I’m using bash and wondering if there is a way to do a search and replace with given conditions. I have a CSV file with rows resembling the following …

Ira,Frances,Lancaster,373611,06211101,239661,239661,8,8/16/01

If the 6th and 7th columns contain the same values, I would like to replace the 7th column with an empty string, so the above would become

Ira,Frances,Lancaster,373611,06211101,239661,,8,8/16/01

I’m using Mac 10.9.5 with bash shell. What is the shortest way to edit the file to remove the data I want?

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-16 18:57:08Z

1

You can use awk for this:

awk -F, -v OFS=, '$6 == $7 {$7=""} 1' file.csv

Testing:

s='Ira,Frances,Lancaster,373611,06211101,239661,239661,8,8/16/01'
awk -F, -v OFS=, '$6 == $7 {$7=""} 1' <<< "$s"
Ira,Frances,Lancaster,373611,06211101,239661,,8,8/16/01

answered Oct 16, 2014 at 18:57

anubhava

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2 Comments

Dave Over a year ago

Thanks. This command seems to work but it removes all the commas from my file. Anywya I can preserve the commas and just remove the values I dont want?

anubhava Over a year ago

I just updated to preserve comma and provided a test code as well.

RBH · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-16 19:03:58Z

0

Awk solution :

awk -F,'{if  ($6 ==  $7) {$7 =""; print $0} }' file.csv

answered Oct 16, 2014 at 19:03

RBH

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