Fixed width data files are probably the most annoying data to import into database. This utility allows user to insert user-defined column separators into user-defided positions of flat file table given in fixed-width format.
I am using this utility to import astronomical catalogs provided as flat tables at CDS ftp server;
Build: $ make all [cc={icc|gcc}]
Install: $ make install [prefix=/path/to/your/bin/directory]
Example of usage:
$ gzip -dc table.dat.gz |
fw2csv --stops=4,10,11,20,30,36 -d '|' -header 1 |
psql wsdb -c "copy mytable from stdin with csv delimiter '|'"
For the list of available options call $ fw2csv --help
A. Myznikov Aug 23 2012