Delete rows of CSV file based on the value of a column

Question

Here's an example of a few lines of my CSV file:

movieID,actorID,actorName,ranking
1,don_rickles,Don Rickles,3
1,jack_angel,Jack Angel,6
1,jim_varney,Jim Varney,4
1,tim_allen,Tim Allen,2
1,tom_hanks,Tom Hanks,1
1,wallace_shawn,Wallace Shawn,5

I would like to remove all rows that have a ranking of > 4, so far I've been trying use this awk line:

awk -F ','  'BEGIN {OFS=","} { if (($4) < 5)  print }' file.csv > file_out.csv

It should print all the rows with a ranking (4th column) of less than 5 to a new file. I can't tell exactly what this line actually does, but it's not what I want. can someone tell me where I've gone wrong with that line?

yep , if this line worked, you change <5 into >4 should go, right? — Kent
– Kent, Commented Jan 8, 2016 at 17:04
@Kent wouldn't that output all lines with a value of >4 into file_out.csv? in my example above, it would print 1,jack_angel,Jack Angel,6 and 1,wallace_shawn,Wallace Shawn,5 into file_out.csv — f7n
– f7n, Commented Jan 8, 2016 at 17:06

karakfa · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-08 17:12:11Z

3

Instead of deleting the records, think of which ones you're going to print. I guess it's <=4. In idiomatic awk you can write this as

$ awk -F, '$4<=4' file

1,don_rickles,Don Rickles,3
1,jim_varney,Jim Varney,4
1,tim_allen,Tim Allen,2
1,tom_hanks,Tom Hanks,1

answered Jan 8, 2016 at 17:12

karakfa

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