1TABLIFY(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation TABLIFY(1)
2
6 tablify - turn a delimited text file into a text table
7
9 tablify [options] file
10 Options:
12 -h⎪--help Show help
14 --no-headers Assume first line is data, not headers
15 --no-pager Do not use $ENV{'PAGER'} even if defined
16 -l⎪--list List the fields in the file (for use with -f)
17 -f⎪--fields=f1[,f2] Show only fields in comma-separated list;
18 when used in conjunction with "no-headers"
19 the list should be field numbers (starting at 1);
20 otherwise, should be field names
21 -w⎪where=f<cmp>v Apply the "cmp" Perl operator to restrict output
22 where field "f" matches the value "v"; acceptable
23 operators include ==, eq, >, >=, <=, and =~
24 -v⎪--vertical Show records vertically
25 --limit=n Limit to first "n" records
26 --fs=x Use "x" as the field separator
27 (default is tab "\t")
28 --rs=x Use "x" as the record separator
29 (default is newline "\n")
30 --as-html Create an HTML table instead of plain text
31
33 This script is essentially a quick way to parse a delimited text file
34 and view it as a nice ASCII table. By selecting only certain fields,
35 employing a where clause to only select records where a field matches
36 some value, and using the limit to only see some of the output, you
37 almost have a mini-database front-end for a simple text file.
38
40 Given a data file like this:
41 name,rank,serial_no,is_living,age
43 George,General,190293,0,64
44 Dwight,General,908348,0,75
45 Attila,Hun,,0,56
46 Tojo,Emporor,,0,87
47 Tommy,General,998110,1,54
48 To find the fields you can reference, use the list option:
50 $ tablify --fs ',' -l people.dat
52 +-----------+-----------+
53 ⎪ Field No. ⎪ Field ⎪
54 +-----------+-----------+
55 ⎪ 1 ⎪ name ⎪
56 ⎪ 2 ⎪ rank ⎪
57 ⎪ 3 ⎪ serial_no ⎪
58 ⎪ 4 ⎪ is_living ⎪
59 ⎪ 5 ⎪ age ⎪
60 +-----------+-----------+
61 To extract just the name and serial numbers, use the fields option:
63 $ tablify --fs ',' -f name,serial_no people.dat
65 +--------+-----------+
66 ⎪ name ⎪ serial_no ⎪
67 +--------+-----------+
68 ⎪ George ⎪ 190293 ⎪
69 ⎪ Dwight ⎪ 908348 ⎪
70 ⎪ Attila ⎪ ⎪
71 ⎪ Tojo ⎪ ⎪
72 ⎪ Tommy ⎪ 998110 ⎪
73 +--------+-----------+
74 5 records returned
75 To extract the first through third fields and the fifth field (where
77 field numbers start at "1" -- tip: use the list option to quickly
78 determine field numbers), use this syntax for fields:
79 $ tablify --fs ',' -f 1-3,5 people.dat
81 +--------+---------+-----------+------+
82 ⎪ name ⎪ rank ⎪ serial_no ⎪ age ⎪
83 +--------+---------+-----------+------+
84 ⎪ George ⎪ General ⎪ 190293 ⎪ 64 ⎪
85 ⎪ Dwight ⎪ General ⎪ 908348 ⎪ 75 ⎪
86 ⎪ Attila ⎪ Hun ⎪ ⎪ 56 ⎪
87 ⎪ Tojo ⎪ Emporor ⎪ ⎪ 87 ⎪
88 ⎪ Tommy ⎪ General ⎪ 998110 ⎪ 54 ⎪
89 +--------+---------+-----------+------+
90 5 records returned
91 To select only the ones with six serial numbers, use a where clause:
93 $ tablify --fs ',' -w 'serial_no=~/^\d{6}$/' people.dat
95 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
96 ⎪ name ⎪ rank ⎪ serial_no ⎪ is_living ⎪ age ⎪
97 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
98 ⎪ George ⎪ General ⎪ 190293 ⎪ 0 ⎪ 64 ⎪
99 ⎪ Dwight ⎪ General ⎪ 908348 ⎪ 0 ⎪ 75 ⎪
100 ⎪ Tommy ⎪ General ⎪ 998110 ⎪ 1 ⎪ 54 ⎪
101 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
102 3 records returned
103 To find Dwight's record, you would do this:
105 $ tablify --fs ',' -w 'name eq "Dwight"' people.dat
107 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
108 ⎪ name ⎪ rank ⎪ serial_no ⎪ is_living ⎪ age ⎪
109 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
110 ⎪ Dwight ⎪ General ⎪ 908348 ⎪ 0 ⎪ 75 ⎪
111 +--------+---------+-----------+-----------+------+
112 1 record returned
113 To find the name of all the people with a serial number who are living:
115 $ tablify --fs ',' -f name -w 'is_living==1' -w 'serial_no>0' people.dat
117 +-------+
118 ⎪ name ⎪
119 +-------+
120 ⎪ Tommy ⎪
121 +-------+
122 1 record returned
123 To filter outside of program and simply format the results, use "-" as
125 the last argument to force reading of STDIN (and probably assume no
126 headers):
127 $ grep General people.dat ⎪ tablify --fs ',' -f 1-3 --no-headers -
129 +---------+--------+--------+
130 ⎪ Field1 ⎪ Field2 ⎪ Field3 ⎪
131 +---------+--------+--------+
132 ⎪ General ⎪ 190293 ⎪ 0 ⎪
133 ⎪ General ⎪ 908348 ⎪ 0 ⎪
134 ⎪ General ⎪ 998110 ⎪ 1 ⎪
135 +---------+--------+--------+
136 3 records returned
137 When dealing with data lacking field names, you can specify "no-head‐
139 ers" and then refer to fields by number (starting at one), e.g.:
140 $ tail -5 people.dat ⎪ tablify --fs ',' --no-headers -w '3 eq "General"' -
142 +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
143 ⎪ Field1 ⎪ Field2 ⎪ Field3 ⎪ Field4 ⎪ Field5 ⎪
144 +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
145 ⎪ George ⎪ General ⎪ 190293 ⎪ 0 ⎪ 64 ⎪
146 ⎪ Dwight ⎪ General ⎪ 908348 ⎪ 0 ⎪ 75 ⎪
147 ⎪ Tommy ⎪ General ⎪ 998110 ⎪ 1 ⎪ 54 ⎪
148 +--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+
149 3 records returned
150 If your file has many fields which are hard to see across the screen,
152 consider using the vertical display with "-v" or "--vertical", e.g.:
153 $ tablify --fs ',' -v --limit 1 people.dat
155 ************ Record 1 ************
156 name: George
157 rank: General
158 serial_no: 190293
159 is_living: 0
160 age : 64
161 1 record returned
163
165 * Text::RecordParser
166 * Text::TabularDisplay
167 * DBD::CSV
168 Although I don't DBD::CSV this module, the idea was much the inspi‐
169 ration for this. I just didn't want to have to install DBI and
170 DBD::CSV to get this kind of functionality. I think my interface
171 is simpler.
172
174 Ken Youens-Clark <kclark@cpan.org>.
175
177 Copyright (C) 2006 Ken Youens-Clark. All rights reserved.
178 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
180 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
181 Free Software Foundation; version 2.
182 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
184 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
185 CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
186 Public License for more details.
187perl v5.8.8 2007-05-17 TABLIFY(1)