Got a text formatting/database question ("bash" it to hell?)

[Jon M. Hanson]

While that is a pretty trivial problem to solve, I don't think you  
should be asking how to extract data out of something like voter  
records on a mailing list in an active criminal lawsuit. Has the  
attorney approved of this method? How do you know the people that  
reply are giving you the correct solutions and not tainting the  
numbers (although I'm sure no one on the list would do that). You  
should be very careful how you proceed here.
---
Jon M. Hanson (N7ZVJ)
Homepage: http://the-hansons-az.net/drupal
Jabber IM: jon at the-hansons-az.net




On Apr 14, 2009, at 6:34 PM, Jim March wrote:

> Guys,
>
> I have an interesting database problem that I think can be solved on
> the command line in one shot.  But I don't know how :(.
>
> I have a comma separated values text file.  Each line shows a voter ID
> number and an election ID number they voted in.  NOT who they voted
> for, and not their names, just that they voted in that election (cast
> a ballot at all, even if blank).
>
> There are multiple elections a given voter likely voted for.  So
> here's the section for two voter IDs (first column) and the elections
> they voted in (second column) plus the method used to vote (third
> column) if it was early or mail-in (which I can ignore).  In pasting
> it to EMail (from Openoffice spreadsheet used as a quick viewer)
> they're separated by spaces but in the original data it's commas.
>
> ---
> 233	2	
> 233	3	
> 233	4	
> 233	5	
> 233	6	
> 233	7	
> 233	31	
> 233	32	
> 233	38	
> 233	41	
> 233	45	
> 233	55	
> 233	57	
> 233	95	
> 233	96	
> 235	2	
> 235	3	
> 235	4	
> 235	5	
> 235	6	
> 235	7	
> 235	31	Early Ballot
> 235	32	Early Ballot
> 235	38	
> 235	45	
> 235	55	
> 235	57	Early Ballot
> 235	95	Early Ballot
> 235	96	Early Ballot
> 235	125	
> 235	126	Early Ballot
> 235	143	
> 235	147	Early Ballot
> 235	148	Early Ballot
> 235	170	Early Ballot
> ---
>
> So what I want to do is, strip out every line that does NOT have a
> "170" in the second column, and then produce a line count.  I need to
> know (like ASAP) how many people voted in election 170 as that's the
> 2006 RTA special election in Pima County now subject to a recount.
> And then I can do a second pass using the same technique and find out
> how many people filed an early ballot by stripping out those and
> counting lines again (and doing basic subtraction).
>
> Help?  This is about a criminal ivestigation going on right now
> regarding this election...
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jim March
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