text file manipulation

Given a text file containing the following data:

C, QTR 1,
, Jan, 1.00
, Feb, 1.00
, Mar, 1.00

I need to create a file like:

QTR 1, Jan
QTR 1, Feb
QTR 2, Mar

I thought using an awk command would be the best way, but I do not know how to assign a variable that is valid for more than one record.

The statement I tried:

awk -F, '{if ($1=="C") x==$2; else if ($1!="C") print x,$2}' filename.cma

The result is a blank field for x and the $2 variable for the current record. Please help!!

TIA

Close...



To get rid of leading spaces, pipe it through sed (note that there are two spaces before the *):

thanks for the response...

but using:

awk -F, '{if ($1=="C") {x=$2} else {print x","$2}}' \
|sed -e 's/^ *//' filename.txt

on the following file:

C, QTR 1,
, Jan, 1.00
, Feb, 1.00
, Mar, 1.00

only reprints the file and hangs...is there a method for referencing a variable in the previous line of a file??

i'd really like to yield the following from the above file:

QTR 1, Jan
QTR 1, Feb
QTR 1, Mar

I can do it in Oracle PL/SQL using a cursor for loop, but I think it would be easier / more efficient to do in awk/sed...somehow....

The first snippet should have worked.

Sorry. My second one wasn't clear. You'd need to run it as below:

Perfect!!!

Thank you!!!

We can get your desired one as,
awk '{ if ( NR == 1 ) name=$2" "$3;
> if ( NR != 1 ) { split($2,a,","); print name" "a[1] } }' logfile
QTR 1, Jan
QTR 1, Feb
QTR 1, Mar

where logfile contains your input file.