DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

fldfmt(1)(TDH)                                                  fldfmt(1)(TDH)

NAME
       fldfmt(1) - take a tabular data stream and format, add new field, or
       modify a field

SYNOPSIS
       fldfmt  [options]   [formatstring]

DESCRIPTION
       fldfmt is a filter utility that selects fields from a stream of records
       and outputs them to standard output.  It can be used to build human-
       presentable reports, or to process data.  Data records should be white-
       space delimited, tabular ascii format.  One output record is produced
       for every input record.  Use it in one of these modes:

       format mode: Create formatted rows.  Fields will be presented as
       specified in a formatstring argument (or format file when -f is used).
       This is the default mode.  You'll probably want to also use -dp for
       data processing purposes.

       new field mode: all fields will be output, along with one new field.
       See -newfield below

       modify field mode: all fields will be output, with one of them changed
       to a constant value.  See -modfield below

FORMAT MODE
       formatstring (or the format file) may contain data field @names or
       field @numbers as in the examples below.   Inline formatting codes ,
       all of which begin with colon (:) may also be used.  Everything else in
       formatstring is passed through transparently.

       formatstring may actually be up to 3 command line arguments, which
       fldfmt will concatenate together.  This allows long formatstrings to be
       split up for readability.

OPTIONS
       -h

              Header mode.  Data field names are expected in the first non-
              comment non-blank line, separated by white space.  The
              formatstring can then access fields by @name, instead of just by
              @number.

       -t

              Input fields expected to be tab-delimited.  With -newfield or
              -modfield, output fields will also be tab-delimited.

       -f formatfile

              Output format specification will be taken from formatfile
              instead of the command line; same syntax expected.  Upper limit
              of 3000 characters.

       -dp

              Data processing mode.  Equivalent to -u -c.  This is normally
              what is desired when doing data processing, ie. when the output
              is not for presentation to humans.

       -u

              Show embedded underscores found in data fields.  Normally they
              are converted to spaces.  Underscore conversion may also be
              controlled within formatstring using inline formatting codes :u+
              and :u-.

       -c

              Show nulls literally.  Normally nulls are displayed as a zero
              length string.  Null representation may be controlled from the
              project config file.

       -newfield fieldpos#  contents

              Output all fields, and add a new field at position fieldpos#
              containing contents.  Implies -dp.  No formatstring is accepted.
              Example: to add a new field containing abc at the beginning of
              each output record use fldfmt -newfield 1 "abc"

       -modfield fieldpos#  contents

              Output all fields, and modify the field at position fieldpos# so
              that it will contain contents.  Implies -dp.  No formatstring is
              accepted.  Example: to change the 3rd field such that it
              contains abc on each output record, use fldfmt -modfield 3 "abc"

       -l

              Turn off evaluation of  inline formatting codes

       -s

              Suppress data-less lines.  For lines that contain at least one
              variable, and that had all variables evaluate to "" (nothing),
              the entire line is suppressed.  If format is more than one line,
              individual lines are handled separately.

       -bh

              Output a bogus field name header as the first output line.  May
              be useful in situations where a header line is expected but not
              used.

EXAMPLES
       cat mydata | fldfmt "@1  (@2)"

       cat mydata | fldfmt "@1 @2 :dec28 @4"

       cat scores | fldfmt -h "Name: @firstname @lastname :col40 Score:
       @score"

       cat scores | fldfmt -newfield 3 "="

       cat scores | fldfmt -modfield 6 "d"

       The following example makes html table rows containing hyperlinks.
       Assumes that CGIPROG is defined to the URL of the CGI executable using
       varvalue in the tdh config file.
       fldfmt "<td><a href=\"@CGIPROG?rtn=people/details&id=@id\">
          @fname @lname</a></td></tr>"

SEE ALSO
        fldsel(1) , another TDH utility can select and omit fields

                         19-SEP-2003   TDH scg@jax.org          fldfmt(1)(TDH)