Text filtering tool?

[eXor]

I have a 500,000+ line CSV file. I'd like to filter out a lot of it to find what I want. The tool should :

- have multiple inclusion and exclusion filters.

- be able to filter by line.

- run under Windows and / or Linux.

- be free.

e.g.

1. Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta
2. Echo Foxtrot Gamma Hotel Alpha Charlie
3. India Joker Kilo Lima Alpha

I want only lines containing the words Alpha and Charlie, but not the word Echo.

I put Alpha in the first inclusion filter. No lines are hidden.

I put Charlie in the second inclusion filter. Line 3 is now hidden.

I put Echo in the first exclusion filter. Line 2 is now hidden.

Leaving just line 1.


Does such a tool exist, or do I have to brush up on regular expressions and cobble together some PHP code?

 

[chaosophy]

Hmm, initially would've said do it in Excel but you have too many lines.

You could probably do a batch file using findstr, depending on how complex you need it to be and how often the criteria is going to change.

edit: For the above example something like...

findstr /I "alpha" inputfile.csv|findstr /I "charlie"|findstr /I /V "echo">>outputfile.csv

 

[theheyes]

I think a Perl program might be in order. You know you want to.