getline in BEGIN section, can't seem to use variable as filename? Opti

[chilecayenne]

Hello all,

I'm making progress on my first awk script in a LONG time.

I'm trying to now make it a bit more versitile...and send in file names as variables on the command line, rather than hard coded in, but I'm having problems.


Example...this works

BEGIN {
FS="|";
OFS="|";

while (getline < "dev_bxm_link_output.txt" > 0)
{
split ($0,bxm_rec,"|");

b_memrecno1 = bxm_rec[2];
b_memrecno2 = bxm_rec[3];
b_score = bxm_rec[5];

bxm_array[b_memrecno1,b_memrecno2] = b_score;

}

}

This works just fine when I have the file going into getline hard
coded in.
However when I try something like this:

BEGIN {
FS="|";
OFS="|";

while (getline < v_filename > 0)
{
split ($0,bxm_rec,"|");

b_memrecno1 = bxm_rec[2];
b_memrecno2 = bxm_rec[3];
b_score = bxm_rec[5];

bxm_array[b_memrecno1,b_memrecno2] = b_score;

}

}

And when calling awk sending the v_filename as a variable...it gives
me an error of:
fatal: expression for `<' redirection has null string value

I'm calling this like:

awk -f myawkfile.awk v_filename="file1.txt" file_to_process.csv

Thanks in advance,

chilecayenne

Any

 

[Annihilannic]

I always use the explicit -v option to declare variables for awk as I find the var=value format after the script ambiguous; is it an input filename or a variable assignment? Besides, it doesn't always work... I'm not sure why, perhaps only supported in some flavours of awk.

awk -v v_filename="file1.txt" -f myawkfile.awk file_to_process.csv

Please post your code between [ignore]

 ...

[/ignore] tags to make it easy on our eyes.

Annihilannic.

 

[PHV]

Besides, it doesn't always work
AFAIK, not in the BEGIN section but when the first input record is read.

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886