DBFILEALTER(1)

NAME
dbfilealter - alter the format of an Fsdb file, changing the row/column separator

SYNOPSIS
dbfilealter [-c] [-F fs] [-R rs] [-Z compression] [column...]

DESCRIPTION
This program reformats a Fsdb file, altering the row ("-R rs") or column ("-F fs") separator. It verifies that this action does not violate the file constraints (for example, if spaces appear in data and the new format has space as a separator), and optionally corrects things.

With "-Z compression" it controls compression on the file

OPTIONS

-F or --fs or --fieldseparator S
    Specify the field (column) separator as "S". See below for valid field separators.

-R or --rs or --rowseparator S
    Specify the row separator as "S". See below for valid row separators.

-Z or --compression S
    Specify file compression as given by file extension "S". Supported compressions are gz for gzip, bz2 for bzip2, xz for xz, or "none" or undef to disable compression. Default is none.

-c or --correct
    Correct any inconsistency caused by the new separators, if possible.

This module also supports the standard fsdb options:

-d  Enable debugging output.

-i or --input InputSource
    Read from InputSource, typically a file name, or "-" for standard input, or (if in Perl) a IO::Handle, Fsdb::IO or Fsdb::BoundedQueue objects.

-o or --output OutputDestination
    Write to OutputDestination, typically a file name, or "-" for standard output, or (if in Perl) a IO::Handle, Fsdb::IO or Fsdb::BoundedQueue objects.

--autorun or --noautorun
    By default, programs process automatically, but Fsdb::Filter objects in Perl do not run until you invoke the run() method. The "--(no)autorun" option controls that behavior within Perl.

--help
    Show help.

--man
    Show full manual.

  Valid Field Separators

D default: any amount of whitespace on input, tabs on output.
s single space (exactly one space for input and output).
S double space on output; two or more spaces on input.
t single tab character (exactly one tab for input and output).
XN take N as one or more hex digits that specify a unicode character. Accept one or more of those characters on input, output exactly one of those characters.
CA take A as a one (unicode) literal character. Accept one or more of those characters on input, output exactly one of those characters.

Potentially in the future "xN" and "cA" will support single-character-on-input equivalents of "XN" and <CA>.

  Valid Row Seperators
Three row separators are allowed:

D the default, one line per row
C complete rowized. Each line is a field-labeled and its value, and a blank line separates "rows". All fields present in the output.
I incompletely rowized. Like "C", but null fields are omitted from the output.

SAMPLE USAGE

  Input:
    #fsdb name id test1
    a 1 80
    b 2 70
    c 3 65

  Command:
    cat data.fsdb | dbfilealter -F S

  Output:
    #fsdb -F S name id test1
    a  1  80
    b  2  70
    c  3  65
    #  | dbfilealter -F S

  Command 2:
    cat data.fsdb | dbfilealter -R C

  Output:
    #fsdb -R C name id test1
    name: a
    id: 1
    test1: 80

    name: b
    id: 2
    test1: 70

    name: c
    id: 3
    test1: 65

    #   | dbfilealter -R C

  Correction mode input:
    #fsdb -F S name id test1
    a student  1  80
    b nice  2  70
    c all  3  65

  Correction mode command:
    cat correction.fsdb | dbfilealter -c -F D

  Correction mode output:
    #fsdb name id test1
    a_student   1       80
    b_nice      2       70
    c_all       3       65
    #   | dbfilealter -c -F D

SEE ALSO
Fsdb, dbcoldefine.

AUTHOR and COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2008-2018 by John Heidemann <johnh@isi.edu>

This program is distributed under terms of the GNU general public license, version 2. See the file COPYING with the distribution for details.