Awk script to convert tsv to recutils for LaTeX
===============================================
Last edited: $Date: 2020/09/12 15:31:18 $
Why I use tsv files
The tsv (tab separated value) format is very robust.
It is not sensitive for the use of comma's or
semicolons inside the text of fields.
This is why I use tsv files as a foundation for the
automated generation of LaTeX reports. I compile
periodic management reports with different levels of
detail, that are all based on the same tsv file.
For some other LaTeX reports, I fill tables with an
awk script that runs on a tsv file.
Usually I have handcrafted the tsv file, with either
ed or with vim.
Just before generating the new reports, I edit the
fields that needs to be changed, like in a progress
report.
Difficulty with tsv files
When the number of fields gets bigger, or when the
contents of a field is one or more sentences long,
the individual lines of a tsv file tends to get very
long.
This makes it difficult to edit these files.
Conversion to recutils
Recently I saw a posting of
@
[email protected] on the GNU recutils, see
https://mastodon.sdf.org/@tomasino/103550158593532132
and his webpage on GNU recutils
https://labs.tomasino.org/gnu-recutils/.
This got me interested, and I started some
experimenting.
It seems that recutils is also robust and not
sensitive for the use of comma's or semicolons
inside the text of fields.
With the utility recfmt one can design the output
format of recsel. You can basically draft any file
as a template, and use the format {{fieldname}} as a
placeholder for the different fields.
So this can also be a file with some LaTeX code,
that can be included in a different LaTeX document
(with \input{filename} ).
awk script to convert from tsv to recutils
Make sure the tsv file has the field names in the
first line. This script will convert the tsv file to
a file that can be used to recutils.
Spaces inside a fieldname are replaced by
underscores. After conversion, apply a line with
"%rec:" followed by the name you want to give to
your newly created recutils database in the top of
the file, and adjust the key, id and mandatory
fields to your linking :)
BEGIN {
FS=" "
header_printed=0;
}
{
if (NR==1) {
i=1;
while ( i <= NF )
{
gsub(" ", "_", $i);
myfields[i] = $i;
i++;
}
}
else
{
if ( header_printed == 0 )
{
printf "%s","%mandatory:";
for (var in myfields )
{
printf " %s", myfields[var]
}
printf "\n%s\n", "%key: id";
printf "%s\n\n", "%sort: id";
header_printed=1;
}
i=1;
printf "id: %s\n", NR;
while ( i <= NF )
{
printf "%s: %s\n", myfields[i], $i;
i++;
}
printf "\n";
}
}
Have fun!
