AWK: setting search value from a variable 1

[cptk]

I want to do something like this ...

awk 'BEGIN {sv="dog";print sv}/$sv/...

but I can't seem to find the right syntax to use between the search slashes to apply a variable.

 

[PHV]

awk 'BEGIN {sv="dog";print sv}$0~sv{...

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[cptk]

Thanks again ... I owe you a star!

So basically what it's doing is reading the entire line (i.e. - $0), then matching (i.e. - "~") on the variable "sv" ...

So my approach to use the variable "sv" between the regular expression search slashes (e.g. /sv/ ) was way off. You can't use variables between the slashes? The slashes are used only for regular expresion searches?