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

[Claude Rubinson]

On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 11:10:48PM -0700, Jim March wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 11:07 PM, Choprboy <choprboy at dakotacom.net> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 14 April 2009 22:30, Claude Rubinson wrote:
> >> On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 07:10:31PM -0700, Choprboy wrote:
> >> > cat file.dat |awk -F "," "{print $2}' |grep -e '^170$' |wc -l
> >>
> >> My eyes!  My eyes!  Useless use of cat!  The googles...  They do
> >> nothing!
> >
> > <Jumps up and down in glee> I caught one, I caught one mom!!!  I knew if I
> > dangled that in the water something^H^H^H^H^Hone would bite! ...And they say
> > there are no fish in this pond...
> >
> >
> > Adrian
> 
> OK...help me out here...why would you give a screwball non-functional command?

You might have misunderstood.  "Useless use of cat" is an old Unix
joke.  See http://partmaps.org/era/unix/award.html

Claude