Abner Gershon wrote: > [..] I thought I could record [textual] information [e.g. >restaurants, phone lists..] in text files using vim >and then use gawk and sed to access this data.
>I currently collect lists of information on many >topics such as restaurants, phone lists, file folders, >slides using a database program, Lotus approach. Since >I am the only user of this information I thought I >could record this information in text files using vim >and then use gawk and sed to access this data. >[..] Iwould like to know if it is generally better >to separate columns with spaces or tabs for this >purpose and if this would be the most appropriate >technique for collecting and organizing such data. I often use the technique that you propose and it works very well for not too big lists. May people responded to your message suggesting spaces as separator. The problem with spaces is, that you often need to handle short text phrases. Therefore, it is better to use a character that you do not often use in texts, like the tab or the "commercial a". Maybe an "escape sequence" to allow entering this separator char in texts is still needed. Sometimes I just put every item labeled on a separate text line, like: name : Janssen street : Dilbert Street etc, and an empty line to separate the records. This style is very flexible, and allows to omit entries, and to add entries later without problems for former versions of the scripts that handle the text lists. Paul Huygen
