Convert .txt file to .csv with header in bash

Question

.txt looks like:

2013-04-10;248179;5431;5375.30€;1.49
..
..
..

I need a .csv file with a Header:

Date       Visit   Login           


        

Answer 1

This is a pure bash solution.Store the headers in an array and set IFS to tab and then echo the header. Loop through the file with read, set IFS to ; on the way in, set IFS to tab and run echo on the way out.

headers=(Date       Visit   Login  Euro      Rate)
((IFS=$'\t'; echo "${headers[*]}"); 
while IFS=';' read -r -a arr; do
(IFS=$'\t'; echo "${arr[*]}";)
done < test.fil) > test.csv

Answer 2

You can use awk :

echo -e "Data\tVisit\tLogin\tEuro\tRate" > newfile; awk -F';' ' {$1=$1}1' OFS="\t" file >> newfile

The {$1=$1}1 is a trick to force the new field separator.

echo with the -e forces the tab character to be interpreted as a tab.

Edit : changed pipe | to & and then to ;

Answer 3

This should do it, if your fields don't contain any funny business:

(echo "Date;Visit;Login;Euro;Rate" ; cat file.txt) | sed 's/;/<tab>/g' > file.csv

You'll just have to type a tab literally in bash (^V TAB). If your version of sed supports it, you can write\t instead of a literal tab.