Batch file to process csv document to add space in postcode field - windows

Question

I have a csv file populated with name, address, and postcode. A large number of the postcodes do not have the required space in between e.g LU79GH should be LU7 9GH and W13TP should be W1 3TP. I need to add a space in each postcode field if it is not there already, the space should always be before the last 3 characters.
What is the best way to solve this via windows command line?
Many Thanks

Answer 1

You can do this with for /f as follows:
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
if "%~1" equ "" (echo.%~0: usage: missing file name.& exit /b 1)
if "%~2" neq "" (echo.%~0: usage: too many arguments.& exit /b 1)
for /f %%i in (%~1) do (echo.%%i& goto :afterheader)
:afterheader
for /f "skip=1 tokens=1-3 delims=," %%i in (%~1) do (
set name=%%i
set address=%%j
set postcode=%%k
set postcode=!postcode: =!
echo.!name!,!address!,!postcode:~0,-3! !postcode:~-3!
)
exit /b 0
Demo:
> type data.csv
name,address,postcode
n1,a1,LU79GH
n2,a2,W13TP
n1,a1,LU7 9GH
n2,a2,W1 3TP
> .\add-space.bat data.csv
name,address,postcode
n1,a1,LU7 9GH
n2,a2,W1 3TP
n1,a1,LU7 9GH
n2,a2,W1 3TP
You can redirect the output to a file to capture it. (But you can't redirect to the same file as the input, because then the redirection will overwrite the input file before it can be read by the script. If you want to overwrite the original file, you can redirect the output to a new file, and then move the new file over the original after the script has finished.)

Answer 2

Using windows you could do something with Powershell.
$document = (Get-Content '\doc.csv')
foreach($line in $document) {
Write-Host $line
// Add logic to cut out exactly what column your looking at with
$list = $line -split","
// Then use an if statement and regular expression to match ones with no space
if($list[0] -match ^[A-Z0-9]$){
// item has no space add logic to add space and write to file
}else{
// item has space or doesnt match the above regular expression could skip this
}
}
Pretty good documentation online check out http://ss64.com/ps/ for help with powershell.

Answer 3

Parsing CSV can be tricky because a comma may be a column delimiter, or it may be a literal character within a quoted field.
Since your postcode is always the last field, I would simply look at the 4th character from the end of the entire line, and if it is not already a space, than insert a space before the last 3 characters in the line. I will also assume that the first line of the file lists the field names, so you don't want to modify that one.
Using pure batch (assuming no values contain !):
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "skip=true"
>"test.csv.new" (
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%A in ("test.csv") do (
set "line=%%A"
if "!line:~-4,1!" equ " " set "skip=true"
if defined skip (echo !line!) else (echo !line:~0,-3! !line:~-3!)
set "skip="
)
)
move /y "test.csv.new" "test.csv" >nul
The solution is simpler if you use my JREPL.BAT regular expression text processor. It is a pure script (hybrid JScript/batch) that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward. The following one liner will do the trick:
jrepl "[^ ](?=...$)" "$& " /jbegln "skip=(ln==1)" /f test.csv /o -
Use CALL JREPL ... if you use the command within another script.