RDB: Operators: etbl

etbl

Usage: etbl [options] rdbtable [col_spec] [line_spec] [pat_spec]

This utility calls an editor to allow the editing of selected lines and/or columns of (or the entire) rdbtable. Options may be abbreviated.

Options:

-eNAME - Use the editor 'NAME'.
-help - Print this help info.
-l[N] - Use "list" format for editing instead of "column" format. If N is given it is the line length to use (min is 50).
-npp - No postprocessing after return from the editor. The edited file is saved with a name of the form "etbl.t.nnnn" where "nnnn" is the process number.
-RCS - Force checkout of the rdbtable from RCS.

A "col_spec" is a list of column names.

A "line_spec" is a list of line numbers, of increasing value, optionally separated by a dash to specify a range, e.g. "10-20". The form "N-" means from line N to end of file. The header is always included, so do not specify lines 1 or 2 (except as the first part of a larger group, e.g. "1-10").

A "pat_spec" is a single pattern (of the form: /pat/ ) optionally followed by one or more column names, and may be preceded with the reserved word 'ne' to negate the meaning (e.g. the pattern should NOT match).

The order of "Col_spec", "line_spec", and "pat_spec" is significant only to the extent that "col_spec" must precede "pat_spec" in the command line if both are given.

If none of "col_spec", "line_spec", or "pat_spec" are given then the entire rdbtable will be edited. If one or more of the three above options are given then the selected subset of the rdbtable will be edited. The option "col_spec" identifies which columns of the rdbtable are to be edited, and options "line_spec" and "pat_spec" determine which lines will be selected for editing, either by direct reference ("line_spec" given "col_spec" not given) or by pattern matching ("col_spec" given "line_spec" not given). If both "line_spec" and "pat_spec" are given then only lines within the bounds of "line_spec" will be considered for selection by pattern matching.

If "pat_spec" does not include column names then the pattern (any PERL regular expression) is matched against each entire row; a row is selected if there is a match anywhere in the row. If column names are included the pattern is matched against only the specified columns. In this case a row is selected if a match is found in any specified column. If the "ne" option precedes the "pat_spec" without column names then an entire row is selected if the pattern does not match anywhere in the row, and if column names are given then the row is selected if the pattern does not match in any specified column.

The form of the file to be edited is either "column" with visible column delimiters (the default) or "list" format where the column names are on the left and the data is on the right. The default editor is specified by the environment variable EDITOR if set, otherwise the editor 'e' is used.

In either form of editing the delimiter is a "pipe" symbol (|). Care should be taken when editing not to use any "pipe" symbols in the data, or to delete any existing pipe symbols in the file. Also, in the case of "list" form, one or more blank lines must separate each record.

The rbdtable may be an existing file, or it may be automatically checked out from RCS. In the latter case it will be checked back into RCS after the editing is complete.

The default action is that if the rdbtable does not exist an attempt will be made to find the rdbtable under RCS (the '-RCS' option may be used to force the use of an RCS file).

Afterward, except in the RCS case, the original contents of the rdbtable will be left in a file of the same name preceded with a comma, e.g. "sample" will be ",sample".

Uses RDB operators: column, ptbl, mktbl, tbl2lst, lst2tbl.

WARNING: If line_spec is given the number of columns must not be changed by editing, or if col_spec and/or "pat_spec" is given the number of lines must not be changed by editing, otherwise the results may be unpredictable.

An example command to edit the rdbtable (named sample) from the DATA section would be:

        etbl  sample

which would edit the entire rdbtable. The file as it is ready to edit is shown in Table 3. The pipe character '|' must not be removed during the editing process, although it may be moved left or right if necessary and the spaces around the pipe character may be deleted if desired.

This form of editing is fine if the rdbtable is not large. If it is large then editing only those parts that need changes is faster and less error prone. To edit only columns 'NAME', 'COUNT', and 'AMT', the command would be:

        etbl  sample  NAME  COUNT  AMT

To edit only lines five thru seven the command would be:

        etbl  sample  5-7

To edit only lines five thru seven of only columns 'NAME', 'COUNT', and 'AMT' the command would be:

        etbl  sample  NAME  COUNT  AMT  5-7

and the file to edit would look like:

                                Table 3

              RDBTABLE (SAMPLE) READY TO EDIT, COLUMN FORM

        NAME   | COUNT | TYP  |   AMT | OTHER    |    RIGHT
        6      |    5N | 4    |    5N | 8        |       8>
        Bush   |    44 | A    |   133 | Another  |     This
        Hansen |    44 | A    |    23 | One      |       Is
        Jones  |    77 | X    |    77 | Here     |       On
        Perry  |    77 | B    |   244 | And      |      The
        Hart   |    77 | D    |  1111 | So       |    Right
        Holmes |    65 | D    |  1111 | On       |     Edge


        ..>>> 1 2 CONTROL LINE, DO NOT TOUCH <<<
        NAME   | COUNT |   AMT
        6      |    5N |    5N


        ..>>> 5 3 CONTROL LINE, DO NOT TOUCH <<<
        Jones  |    77 |    77
        Perry  |    77 |   244
        Hart   |    77 |  1111

Note that whenever a line_spec is given, control lines (starting with '..>>>' are inserted into the file to edit. They must not be modified during the editing process. They are used to reconstruct the rdbtable after editing.

If the rdbtable has data fields that are long, i.e. longer than convenient to edit in the column form shown above, the 'list' form is the preferred method. The usage of line_spec and col_spec are unchanged but the form of the file to edit is different. For example consider an rdbtable (named sample3) which is shown in Table 4, where the TAB

                                Table 4

                   RDBTABLE (SAMPLE3) ACTUAL CONTENT

    name<T>datatype<T>agencysrc<T>dbms<T>contact<T>contents<T>notes<R>
    46<T>15<T>60<T>15<T>21<T>530<T>600<R>
    ACAS (Air Combat Assessment)<T>BDA<T>Bigplace AFB<T>File<T>Starr<T>Air
    Combat Assessment BDA data.  Duplicates data under ACAS (Air Combat
    Assessment) BDA Sorties, diskettes nr 1,2,3.<T>On two 3.5 inch
    diskettes.<R>
    ACAS (Air Combat Assessment) BDA Sorties<T>BDA<T>Sawyer AFB<T>File<T>
    Hobbs/Emerson<T>85 files, 2 per day containing 12 and 24 hour reports.
    This data is different from that under ACAS (Air Combat Assessment) BDA
    Data, from diskettes 1,2,3.<T>Received 5/6/91.<R>
    ATO (Air Tasking Orders) Original<T>ATO<T>HQ USAF, Universal AFB<T>
    File<T>Marshall<T>Original ATO messages.  Both sets are incomplete.<T>
    To be joined into single file and edited.  Missing sections not yet
    ordered.  May be parsed completely, or only for key comments. Much data
    to be processed.<R>
    ABC Original<T>ABC<T>HQ USAF, Universal AFB<T>File<T>Marshall<T>Original
    ATO messages.  Both sets are incomplete.<T>To be joined into single file
    and edited.  Missing sections not yet ordered. May be parsed completely,
    or only for key comments. Much data to be processed.<R>

characters are represented by '<T>' and the newline characters are represented by <R>. This small rdbtable looks very incoherent in raw form, and a file of any real size with long data fields is even more so. The command to edit the file sample3 in 'list' form would be:

        etbl  -list  sample3

which would produce a file to edit as shown in Table 5. Note that each section holds information relating to one row in the rdbtable and that the first section holds information relating to the header of the rdbtable. Also note that each section is separated by a blank line (it could be any number of blank lines).

Each row in a section relates to a single data value. The pipe character '|' must not be removed during the editing process, although it may be moved left or right if necessary. Only one pipe character is to be in the information relating to one data value, although that information may be physically on more than one line in the section if the data value is long.

The spaces on both sides of the pipe character as well as the spaces around the column names are only for readability; they may be moved or even deleted if desired.

The advantage of this form of edit file is that even with very large data values most, if not all, of the information from each row of an rdbtable will be visible on the screen at once.

                                Table 5

              RDBTABLE (SAMPLE3) READY TO EDIT, LIST FORM

         name | 46
     datatype | 15
    agencysrc | 60
         dbms | 15
      contact | 21
     contents | 530
        notes | 600

         name | ACAS (Air Combat Assessment)
     datatype | BDA
    agencysrc | Bigplace AFB
         dbms | File
      contact | Starr
     contents | Air Combat Assessment BDA data.  Duplicates data under ACAS (Air
                Combat Assessment) BDA Sorties, diskettes nr 1,2,3.
        notes | On two 3.5 inch diskettes.

         name | ACAS (Air Combat Assessment) BDA Sorties
     datatype | BDA
    agencysrc | Sawyer AFB
         dbms | File
      contact | Hobbs/Emerson
     contents | 85 files, 2 per day containing 12 and 24 hour reports. This data
                is different from that under ACAS (Air Combat Assessment) BDA
                Data, from diskettes 1,2,3.
        notes | Received 5/6/91.

         name | ATO (Air Tasking Orders) Original
     datatype | ATO
    agencysrc | HQ USAF, Universal AFB
         dbms | File
      contact | Marshall
     contents | Original ATO messages.  Both sets are incomplete.
        notes | To be joined into single file and edited.  Missing sections not
                yet ordered.  May be parsed completely, or only for key
                comments. Much data to be processed.

         name | ABC Original
     datatype | ABC
    agencysrc | HQ USAF, Universal AFB
         dbms | File
      contact | Marshall
     contents | Original ATO messages.  Both sets are incomplete.
        notes | To be joined into single file and edited.  Missing sections not
                yet ordered.  May be parsed completely, or only for key
                comments. Much data to be processed.