Ignoring part of text when matching

[AA2K5]

Hi,

I have a problem when doing some pattern matching.

Basically I'm trying to insert a new line whenever I come across a certain word i.e. WORD. But if the text is enclosed in some brackets for example, then I want to leave it as it is.

At the moment I am applying the pattern to WORD when it is found but I am ignoring anything in brackets by skipping to the next line. This approach doesn't work if I have the following text - "(Some text with WORD) and WORD". Because the line is skipped as it has brackets.

I'm sure theres a simple way of doing this but I'm new to awk so I'm struggling. By the way I am using gawk on windows. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[PHV]

A starting point:
x=$0;gsub(/\([^)]*\)/,"",x)
if(x~/WORD/) ...

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[AA2K5]

Is the code above correct or did you mean: -

x=$0;gsub(/\([^[red]\[/red])]*\)/,"",x)
if(x~/WORD/) ...

Also if I understand the above correctly you are stripping out anything containing brackets and storing it into x. So then any further processing is done on x not on $0.

But if I still want to output anything that was in brackets this is in x and not in $0. How can I output the stuff in brackets and still force a newline after WORD? For example this : -

(Some text with WORD) and WORD and some more text

becomes this: -

(Some text with WORD) and WORD
and some more text

Any help?

 

[PHV]

And this ?
{ x=$0;gsub(/WORD/,"&\n",x)
while(match(x,/\([^)]*\n/))
x=substr(x,1,RLENGTH-1)""substr(x,RLENGTH+1)
print x
}

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[AA2K5]

Thanks for that.

It looks good. I'll give it a try when I get a chance.

Thanks a lot for your help