[vox-tech] creating a lookup table in awk

[Dylan Beaudette]

Hi everyone,

I have a rather interesting problem, that i would like to solve with awk or 
bash scripting - but if all else fails then I will switch to python.

here is the idea:

i have a set of files, each with 30 columns - coming from a set of 10 data 
loggers. each file represents the output from a single datalogger. the 
ordering of the columns is consistant, and maps to a soil-pit id and moisture 
probe id. I need to create a look-up table to index ids to column numbers. 
Then, looping over the dimensions of the look-up table would allow me to 
process the file line-by line, column-by column accordingly:

do bash or awk support these type of data structures?

this is how i would envision it in something like python / php:

# a multi-dimensional hash for each datalogger:
# referencing the sensors assigned to a pit
# and the row number in which the sensor values exist in the output file
datalogger_1[
pit_1[
sensor_1 => 4
sensor_2 => 5
sensor_3 => 6
sensor_4 => 7
],
pit_2[
sensor_1 => 8
sensor_2 => 9
sensor_3 => 10
sensor_4 => 11
sensor_5 => 12
],
...
]


# the logic of the program would be :
iterate over the pits in the datalogger hash
	iterate over the sensors in each pit hash
		lookup the column number for each sensor 
		do cool stuff
	end
end

any ideas ? or should I just stick with python for this?

cheers,

-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soils and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341