st: Changing 2 columns of repetitive ASCII data into many columnssorted by variable

[Simon Wheeler <simon.wheeler@kcl.ac.uk>]

Dear All

I have recently purchased a dataset which contains food codes in 7-bit 
ASCII format from the UK Food Standards Agency.  However, they are not 
yet in a format that I can use for any meaningful analysis and their 
technicial support is unable to assist.

The data as they stand fall into 2 columns: varname|value.  NUMB is the 
food code - i.e. the variable that I want to sort the data by.

I would like to have all of the other variables along the top as 
separate columns, so that I end up with individual food codes and their 
nutrient values - see below.  With these data I can then do dietary 
analysis.

This format goes on for several thousand different food codes, over and 
over.  Codes are separated by the line ***

How it is now:

RECTYPE	1
NUMB	14002
CONST	50852
PREV	50852
GROUP	 FA
NAME	 Apples, cooking, raw, peeled
EDPOR	1
WATER	87.7
TOTNIT	0.05
PROT	0.3
FAT	0.1
CHO	8.9
KCALS	35
KJ	151
STAR	 Tr
TOTSUG	8.9
GLUC	2
FRUCT	5.9
SUCR	1
MALT	0
LACT	0
SOUTHFIB	2.2
ENGFIB	1.6
CELL	0.6
SOLNCP	0.6
INSOLNCP	0.4
LIGNIN	 Tr
NA	2
***
RECTYPE	1
NUMB	14003
CONST	50853
PREV	50853
GROUP	 FA
NAME	 Apples, cooking, weighed with skin and core
EDPOR	0.73
WATER	63.1

etc

What I would like to have:

Code    | Description | Group | Water | Fat | CHO | Protein | Sodium | 
Potassium

14001   |  Apples     | Fruit |  26   | 5.1 | 4.2 |   3.6   | 0.1    |  0.04
14002   |  Oranges    | Fruit |  etc


Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to arrange the data into 
something I can use?

Thanks,

Simon Wheeler


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