MATH DEPT Computer News, Volume 13

How to dork your official classlist.

I explain here how to use a simple command to transform the classlist that Peter Cook sends you via e-mail into a list of names to put in a file useful for keeping grades electronically. For example, the lines

262  02 01  MC LOUGHLIN, ERIN M          4   CHE  3.0    999-99-9998
262  02 01  TSENG, PANG-TAT BILLY BOY    2   E    3.0    999-99-9999

will be transformed into the more useful

MC_LOUGHLIN,E.M.
TSENG,P.-T.B.B.

The command is called listdorker and I wrote it myself. It is a perl script. To get a copy of the command, simply shift-left mouse click on

listdorker

and save the command in a file called "listdorker." (Alternatively, left mouse click on it and select SAVE AS from the FILE menu and save the file as TEXT in a file called listdorker.) Move the file to the same directory where you keep the file that holds the classlist that Peter Cook sent you. (Be sure to strip the mail header and blank lines from Peter Cook's list.) Make your listdorker file executable by typing

chmod u+x listdorker

Let's say that your copy of Peter Cook's list is called "classlist." To use listdorker, simply type

listdorker classlist > nameslist

This command will create the file "nameslist." (If you want to see what nameslist will look like without creating it, simply type

listdorker classlist

This will send the names list to the screen.)

Don't worry, your old classlist file will remain unchanged where you left it.

The listdorker command is easy to modify for other uses. Instructions for how to do that are included in the listdorker file.

For information on how to import your new nameslist into a spreadsheet, see Network News, volume 4.

For information on how to use awk to compute grades, see The Joy of awk.

Back to the Network News Index Page