How do I read first 5 characters of first line using AWK 1

[Guest_imported]

I have a big file and need to process it based on the first 5 letters of line one.

By knowing the 5 letters, I need to choose the appropriate processing command.

Example....

TIMES jlsadfsjl;kl;sdfjsdfsd sdfj;sdl;fksd
asjks sdjasl;fkasl; asfjal;sf asl;fkasd;lfa
asdas djfkfjsdk ,. sdafjsdfkjdjkfsdfj sdkds

I should be able to read and compare the "TIMES" to choose appropriate command to process the file.

Any sample code using awk will be useful.

Thanks in advance.

-Jay

 

[flogrr]

Jay-

awk '{If(NR==1) five = substr($0,1,5)}{print five}' "inputfile"

flogrr
flogr@yahoo.com

 

[Krunek]

Try this command:

awk "NR == 1 { print substr($0,1,5) }" inputfile

Jesus loves you!

Bye!

 

[Krunek]

If you don't need to read entire file, use this example:

awk "NR == 1 { print substr($0,1,5); exit }" somefile

Statement exit causes the program to terminate.

God bless you!

KP.