create cvs from list text file

[reup]

hello all,

I am a bit at a lost here

I have a file with 5000 lines

it is a list of books authors, series and titles

all lines start with the author names, than there is a dash (-) than the series name, a dash again and the title of the book


the problem I encounter is that sometime there is a series, sometime not, and as I try to enter this list in a database, I wanted to create a cvs file to import into mysql

ex:
A. A. Attanasio - Radix Tetrads 01 - Radix
A. A. Attanasio - Solis

the best would be to be able to add in the second line, a "space dash space" just after the author name, but how to make sure it does not do it to the first line as well

if I could separate all line with 2 dash, (grep ??) then I would be able to do a simple replace, and change the single dash into two

I will keep digging into it but I would really appreciate if someone would know of way to do it

thanks

reup

[Franklin52]

Try this:

awk -F "-" 'NF==2{$1=$1 "- -"}1' OFS= file

[reup]

Franklin52, thanks very much for your answers

I need to try it.

I have found a way as well (did not sleep las night) and it is probably not as elegant but it seems to work

sed -e 's/-/blablabla/1' -e 's/-/bliblibli/1' list.txt > newlist.txt

then I grep out the bliblibli

grep -v bliblibli newlist.txt > verygoodfilename.txt

also the file with bliblibli

grep bliblibli newlist.txt > anothergoodname.txt

therefore, I end up with 2 files, one with the series, one without

it is a lot of work but so little compare to a hand sorting

reup