1TABLIFY(1)            User Contributed Perl Documentation           TABLIFY(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       tablify - turn a delimited text file into a text table
7

SYNOPSIS

9         tablify [options] file
10
11       Options:
12
13         -h|--help           Show help
14         -c|--comment        Define the beginning of a (single-line) comment
15         -n|--no-headers     Assume first line is data, not headers
16         --no-pager          Do not use $ENV{'PAGER'} even if defined
17         --strip-quotes      Strip " or ' around fields
18         -l|--list           List the fields in the file (for use with -f)
19         -f|--fields=f1[,f2] Show only fields in comma-separated list;
20                             when used in conjunction with "no-headers"
21                             the list should be field numbers (starting at 1);
22                             otherwise, should be field names
23         -w|where=f<cmp>v    Apply the "cmp" Perl operator to restrict output
24                             where field "f" matches the value "v";  acceptable
25                             operators include ==, eq, >, >=, <=, and =~
26         -v|--vertical       Show records vertically
27         -i|--limit=n        Limit to given number of records
28         --fs=x              Use "x" as the field separator
29                             (default is tab "\t")
30         --rs=x              Use "x" as the record separator
31                             (default is newline "\n")
32         --as-html           Create an HTML table instead of plain text
33         --headers           Comma-separated list of names matching
34                             the number of columns
35

DESCRIPTION

37       This script is essentially a quick way to parse a delimited text file
38       and view it as a nice ASCII table.  By selecting only certain fields,
39       employing a where clause to only select records where a field matches
40       some value, and using the limit to only see some of the output, you
41       almost have a mini-database front-end for a simple text file.
42

EXAMPLES

44       Given a data file like this:
45
46         name,rank,serial_no,is_living,age
47         George,General,190293,0,64
48         Dwight,General,908348,0,75
49         Attila,Hun,,0,56
50         Tojo,Emporor,,0,87
51         Tommy,General,998110,1,54
52
53       To find the fields you can reference, use the list option:
54
55         $ tablify --fs ',' -l people.dat
56         +-----------+-----------+
57         | Field No. | Field     |
58         +-----------+-----------+
59         | 1         | name      |
60         | 2         | rank      |
61         | 3         | serial_no |
62         | 4         | is_living |
63         | 5         | age       |
64         +-----------+-----------+
65
66       To extract just the name and serial numbers, use the fields option:
67
68         $ tablify --fs ',' -f name,serial_no people.dat
69         +--------+-----------+
70         | name   | serial_no |
71         +--------+-----------+
72         | George | 190293    |
73         | Dwight | 908348    |
74         | Attila |           |
75         | Tojo   |           |
76         | Tommy  | 998110    |
77         +--------+-----------+
78         5 records returned
79
80       To extract the first through third fields and the fifth field (where
81       field numbers start at "1" -- tip: use the list option to quickly
82       determine field numbers), use this syntax for fields:
83
84         $ tablify --fs ',' -f 1-3,5 people.dat
85         +--------+---------+-----------+------+
86         | name   | rank    | serial_no | age  |
87         +--------+---------+-----------+------+
88         | George | General | 190293    | 64   |
89         | Dwight | General | 908348    | 75   |
90         | Attila | Hun     |           | 56   |
91         | Tojo   | Emporor |           | 87   |
92         | Tommy  | General | 998110    | 54   |
93         +--------+---------+-----------+------+
94         5 records returned
95
96       To select only the ones with six serial numbers, use a where clause:
97
98         $ tablify --fs ',' -w 'serial_no=~/^\d{6}$/' people.dat
99         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
100         | name   | rank    | serial_no | is_living | age  |
101         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
102         | George | General | 190293    | 0         | 64   |
103         | Dwight | General | 908348    | 0         | 75   |
104         | Tommy  | General | 998110    | 1         | 54   |
105         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
106         3 records returned
107
108       To find Dwight's record, you would do this:
109
110         $ tablify --fs ',' -w 'name eq "Dwight"' people.dat
111         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
112         | name   | rank    | serial_no | is_living | age  |
113         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
114         | Dwight | General | 908348    | 0         | 75   |
115         +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
116         1 record returned
117
118       To find the name of all the people with a serial number who are living:
119
120         $ tablify --fs ',' -f name -w 'is_living==1' -w 'serial_no>0' people.dat
121         +-------+
122         | name  |
123         +-------+
124         | Tommy |
125         +-------+
126         1 record returned
127
128       To filter outside of program and simply format the results, use "-" as
129       the last argument to force reading of STDIN (and probably assume no
130       headers):
131
132         $ grep General people.dat | tablify --fs ',' -f 1-3 --no-headers -
133         +---------+--------+--------+
134         | Field1  | Field2 | Field3 |
135         +---------+--------+--------+
136         | General | 190293 | 0      |
137         | General | 908348 | 0      |
138         | General | 998110 | 1      |
139         +---------+--------+--------+
140         3 records returned
141
142       When dealing with data lacking field names, you can specify "no-
143       headers" and then refer to fields by number (starting at one), e.g.:
144
145         $ tail -5 people.dat | tablify --fs ',' --no-headers -w '3 eq "General"' -
146         +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
147         | Field1 | Field2  | Field3 | Field4 | Field5 |
148         +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
149         | George | General | 190293 | 0      | 64     |
150         | Dwight | General | 908348 | 0      | 75     |
151         | Tommy  | General | 998110 | 1      | 54     |
152         +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
153         3 records returned
154
155       If your file has many fields which are hard to see across the screen,
156       consider using the vertical display with "-v" or "--vertical", e.g.:
157
158         $ tablify --fs ',' -v --limit 1 people.dat
159         ************ Record 1 ************
160              name: George
161              rank: General
162         serial_no: 190293
163         is_living: 0
164              age : 64
165
166         1 record returned
167

SEE ALSO

169       •   Text::RecordParser
170
171       •   Text::TabularDisplay
172
173       •   DBD::CSV
174
175           Although I don't DBD::CSV this module, the idea was much the
176           inspiration for this.  I just didn't want to have to install DBI
177           and DBD::CSV to get this kind of functionality.  I think my
178           interface is simpler.
179

AUTHOR

181       Ken Youens-Clark <kclark@cpan.org>.
182
184       Copyright (C) 2006-10 Ken Youens-Clark.  All rights reserved.
185
186       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
187       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
188       Free Software Foundation; version 2.
189
190       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
191       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
192       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
193       General Public License for more details.
194
195
196
197perl v5.32.1                      2021-01-27                        TABLIFY(1)
Impressum