awk in shell script - want to put in a single quote before field!!

[LGJ]

I am trying to create a file to then view in excel. I am extracting data from one file (comma seperated) and sending the required fields to another in a .ksh shell script

the below works fine but if I want to put a single quote (') before $2 how is this done? I've tried various ways and get syntax errors saying its unmatched

OK :-
cat dummydata | awk -F, '{ print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4 }' >> ${FILE}_${TIMESTAMP}.xls

Gives errors :-
cat dummydata | awk -F, '{ print $1"\t'"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4 }' >> ${FILE}_${TIMESTAMP}.xls

 

[PHV]

Try this:

awk -F, '{print $1"\t'"'"'"$2"'"'"'\t"$3"\t"$4}' dummydata >> ${FILE}_${TIMESTAMP}.xls

Hope This Help
PH.

 

[LGJ]

Great , thanks PH this does the trick, not too sure how it works though?