[PLUG] Reformating date fields in text files

[Russell Senior]

Have you read the manpage where it discusses the split function? Maybe
it's time to re-read that.

On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 1:13 PM Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
>
> I often download data as .csv files. The dates are usually formated as
> mm/dd/yyyy. I want to convert them to the format yyyy-mm-dd. I've used awk
> in the last instance (with the split() function) but didn't make note of
> exactly how it was working so I could modify it for different source date
> formats. I didn't get it working today on a new file, even after reading
> about the split() function.
>
> I also read about the match() function as that was used in a stack exchange
> thread. I couldn't get it to work, either.
>
> All the threads I found on my web search have original dates formatted
> mmddyyyy and needed to have that string separated with dashes or forward
> slashes separating month, day, and year. I keep dates in ISO 8601 format
> (yyyy-mm-dd) and would like a way to do this with sed, awk, python, or perl.
> I need it commented so I can adjust it for the number of fields in each line
> and the position of the date field.
>
> An example of the current data file:
> BB Wood Products LLC|2017-094|Scappoose|Notice of Civil Penalty Assessment||7/31/2017|8400.00
> The date to be modified is in the sixth field.
>
> I'm looking to learn how to do this conversion that's adaptable to all data
> files needed adjustment.
>
> TIA,
>
> Rich