Command query on excel file

[ibirp]

Hi. I have a sample excel sheet with 3 (or more) columns below:

cat1 kitty black
cat2 furry yellow
cat3 missy black
dog1 baxter white
dog2 ellon red
fish1 gold yellow
fish2 fin red


I need a command/script/batch file that queries from a certain column (say 1st column), then displays the result from selected columns only (say 1st and 2nd).
Example:

command: findpet.bat dog
result:
dog1 baxter
dog2 ellon

i only need the results to be displayed on the console. thanks!

[Squashman]

.BAT file cannot read excel files. You would need to use Vbscript or Powershell to do such a task.
If your file was a text file that was delimited by a specified delimiter then it should be fairly easy to do with a .BAT file.

[ibirp]

Yes, i can convert the Excel sheet to a delimited text file.
If you have a sample bat i can work with, that would be great. Thanks!

[ShadowThief]

Code: Select all

@echo off
if "%~1"=="" exit /b
set "source_file=data.csv"
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims= " %%A in ('findstr /C:"%~1" %source_file%') do echo %%A %%B

This assumes that

1. Your source file is called data.csv
2. Your data is separated by spaces (despite the C in CSV standing for "comma")
3. You're fine with hardcoding the data filename

[Compo]

ShadowThief, It would be safer to perform your search against the content of the target field, not over the entire data record. What happens if, the fish is a catfish, or dogfish? the dog is named Catlin? or the color of the cat is dogs liver?

[ShadowThief]

ShadowThief, It would be safer to perform your search against the content of the target field, not over the entire data record. What happens if, the fish is a catfish, or dogfish? the dog is named Catlin? or the color of the cat is dogs liver?

I put in as much effort as ibirp put into their question