Hi guys, I'm looking to start scripting and have a problem I thought I would use to learn some basics, basically I have a list of my family's addresses that are in one big vertical list varying in size. I want to sort into a tabular format below is a example of the list

I'm looking into how to sort through a list, and print each element into a line under the right category heading (using comma's as a separator) then using a blank as a prompt for the script to move onto the next bunch of data in the list (in this case contact details) putting that on a new line

Thanks in advance

bob smith
43 canarvon road
worcester
WD2 4 XY
Tel:0800 000 000
Email:get@me.co.uk

john doe
56 victoria street
little hampton
hamtonshire
Email:the@there.com

lilly allen
94 Dames close
Simsville
Essex
Phone:0909811811

I would like to sort it as follows(csv format):
name, address1, address2, address3, address4, email, phone
bob smith, 43 canarvon road, worcester, WD2 4 XY, , Email:get@me.co.uk, Tel:0800 000 000
john doe, 56 victoria street, little hampton, hamtonshire, ,the@there.com, ,
lilly allen, 94 Dames close, Simsville, Essex,,, Phone:0909811811

sounds like homework to me!! You had a go at it at all. You should try man sed.

no not at my age.. but I will have a look at the manual

lol sorry just have seen very similar if not exactly the same problem before!! Look through this forum and you should find the answer somewhere.

(while read line; do if [ $(echo $line | wc -c) -eq 1 ] ; then echo; else echo -n $line,; fi ; done<address.txt ) |sort >address.csv