[Tutor] Best approach to sort data based on several criteria

[Rick Pasotto]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2003 at 11:44:44AM -0300, Jorge Godoy wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> I have a huge amount of data that's stored in a file where each record
> is in a line made of 22 columns, and each column is separated from the
> other by a ';'. 
> 
> I need to show this data (some columns each time) sorted out
> accordingly to some columns (e.g. columns zero, one, five and six,
> each on a different view and in one of these views, I need to sort
> based on multiple keys).
> 
> What's the best way to handle this situation? 
> 
> I thought about splitting these columns and sorting them, but maybe
> there's a more efficient way... 
> 
> Not to mention that some columns are strings and other are dates or
> numbers.

As another poster said, the easiest way is to convert to a database.
For that you might want to consider SQLite. There's a python module.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pysqlite/

This would be much simpler and more portable than the heavier duty
databases like MySql.

On the other hand, awk may be all you need! :-)

-- 
"If you speak the truth, have a foot in the stirrup."
		-- Turkish proverb
    Rick Pasotto    rick@niof.net    http://www.niof.net