Tabulate part of text file written by shell - shell

Question

I have a shell script that is writing(echoing) the output on an array to a file. The file is in the following format
The tansaction detials for today are 35
Please check the 5 biggest transactions below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client Name,Account Number,Amount,Tran Time
Michael Press,20484,602117,11.41.02
Adam West,164121,50152,11.41.06
John Smith,15113,411700,11.41.07
Leo Anderson,2115116,350056,11.41.07
Wayne Clark,451987,296503,11.41.08
And i have multiple such line.
How do i tabulate the names after ---?
I tried using spaces while echoing the array elements. Also tried tabs. I tried using column -t -s options. But the text above the --- is interfering with the desired output.
The desired output is
The tansaction detials for today are 35
Please check the 5 biggest transactions below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client Name Account Number Amount Tran Time
Michael Press 20484 602117 11.41.02
Adam West 164121 50152 11.41.06
John Smith 15113 411700 11.41.07
Leo Anderson 2115116 350056 11.41.07
Wayne Clark 451987 296503 11.41.08
The printing to a file is a part of a bigger script. So, i am looking for a simple solution to plug into this script.
Here's the snippet from that script where i am echoing to the file.
echo "The tansaction detials for today are 35 " >> log.txt
echo "" >> log.txt
echo " Please check the 5 biggest transactios below " >> log.txt
echo "" >> log.txt
echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------" >> log.txt
echo "" >> log.txt
echo "" >> log.txt
echo "Client Name,Account Number,Amount,Tran Time" >> log.txt
array=( `output from a different script` )
x=1
for i in ${array[#]}
do
#echo "Array $x - $i"
Clientname=$(echo $i | cut -f1 -d',')
accountno=$(echo $i | cut -f2 -d',')
amount=$(echo $i | cut -f3 -d',')
trantime=$(echo $i | cut -f4 -d',')
echo "$Clientname,$accountno,$amount,$trantime" >> log.txt
(( x=$x+1 ))
done

Answer 1

I'm not sure to understand everythings =P
but to answer this question :
How do i tabulate the names after ---?
echo -e "Example1\tExample2"
-e means : enable interpretation of backslash escapes
So for your output, I suggest :
echo -e "$Clientname\t$accountno\t$amount\t$trantime" >> log.txt
Edit : If you need more space, you can double,triple,... it
echo -e "Example1\t\tExample2"

Answer 2

If I understand your question, in order to produce the output format of:
Client Name Account Number Amount Tran Time
Michael Press 20484 602117 11.41.02
Adam West 164121 50152 11.41.06
John Smith 15113 411700 11.41.07
Leo Anderson 2115116 350056 11.41.07
Wayne Clark 451987 296503 11.41.08
You should use the output formatting provided by printf instead of echo. For example, for the headings, you can use:
printf "Client Name Account Number Amount Tran Time\n" >> log.txt
instead of:
echo "Client Name,Account Number,Amount,Tran Time" >> log.txt
For writing the five largest amounts and details, you could use:
printf "%-14s%-17s%8s%s\n" "$Clientname" "$accountno" "$amount" "$trantime" >> log.txt
instead of:
echo "$Clientname,$accountno,$amount,$trantime" >> log.txt
If that isn't what you are needing, just drop a comment and let me know and I'm happy to help further.
(you may have to tweak the field widths a bit, I just did a rough count)
True Tabular Output Requires Measuring Each Field
If you want to insure that your data is always in tabular form, you need to measure each field width (including the heading) and then take the max of either the field width (or heading) to set the field width for your output. Below is an example of how that can be done (using your simulated other program input):
#!/bin/bash
ofn="log.txt" # set output filename
# declare variables as array and integer types
declare -a line_arr hdg name acct amt trn tmp
declare -i nmx=0 acmx=0 ammx=0 tmx=0
# set heading array (so you can measure lengths)
hdg=( "Client Name"
"Account Number"
"Ammount"
"Tran Time" )
## set the initial max based on headings
nmx="${#hdg[0]}" # max name width
acmx="${#hdg[1]}" # max account width
ammx="${#hdg[2]}" # max ammount width
tmx="${#hdg[3]}" # max tran width
{ IFS=$'\n' # your array=( `output from a different script` )
line_arr=($(
cat << EOF
Michael Press,20484,602117,11.41.02
Adam West,164121,50152,11.41.06
John Smith,15113,411700,11.41.07
Leo Anderson,2115116,350056,11.41.07
Wayne Clark,451987,296503,11.41.08
EOF
)
)
}
# write heading to file
cat << EOF > "$ofn"
The tansaction detials for today are 35
Please check the 5 biggest transactions below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EOF
# read line array into tmp, compare to max field widths
{ IFS=$','
for i in "${line_arr[#]}"; do
tmp=( $(printf "%s" "$i") )
((${#tmp[0]} > nmx )) && nmx=${#tmp[0]}
((${#tmp[1]} > acmx )) && acmx=${#tmp[1]}
((${#tmp[2]} > ammx )) && ammx=${#tmp[2]}
((${#tmp[3]} > tmx )) && tmx=${#tmp[3]}
name+=( "${tmp[0]}" ) # fill name array
acct+=( "${tmp[1]}" ) # fill account num array
amt+=( "${tmp[2]}" ) # fill amount array
trn+=( "${tmp[3]}" ) # fill tran array
done
}
printf "%-*s %-*s %-*s %s\n" "$nmx" "${hdg[0]}" "$acmx" "${hdg[1]}" \
"$ammx" "${hdg[2]}" "${hdg[3]}" >> "$ofn"
for ((i = 0; i < ${#name[#]}; i++)); do
printf "%-*s %-*s %-*s %s\n" "$nmx" "${name[i]}" "$acmx" "${acct[i]}" \
"$ammx" "${amt[i]}" "${trn[i]}" >> "$ofn"
done
(you can remove the extra space between each field in the final two printf statements if you only want a single space between them -- looked better with 2 to me)
Output to log.txt
$ cat log.txt
The tansaction detials for today are 35
Please check the 5 biggest transactions below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client Name Account Number Ammount Tran Time
Michael Press 20484 602117 11.41.02
Adam West 164121 50152 11.41.06
John Smith 15113 411700 11.41.07
Leo Anderson 2115116 350056 11.41.07
Wayne Clark 451987 296503 11.41.08
Look things over and let me know if you have any questions.