newbie question about number fields

[mobidyc]

Hello,

my english seems to be bad (i'm french), so i don't understand the $NR var.
NR: The number of fields in the current record

echo "test toto tata" |awk '{print "number of fields: "$NR}'
number of fields: test

there is 3 fields, the results would be '3', no ?

please, help me to understand.

 

[feherke]

Hi

There is something wrong :
[ul]
[li][tt]NR[/tt] - number of records[/li]
[li][tt]NF[/tt] - number of fields[/li]
[/ul]
And those begining with dolar sign ( $ ) are field variables. So [tt]$NR[/tt] is the [tt]NR[/tt]th field of the current record. And while that was the first record, your expression evaluates to [tt]$1[/tt], so the first field was [tt]print[/tt]ed.

You want this :

echo "test toto tata" |awk '{print "number of fields: "NF}'

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[PHV]

NR (without $) = Record Number
NF (without $) = Number of Fields in the current record
$NF (with $) = Value of last field in the current record

Anyway: man awk

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

 

[mobidyc]

many thanks for your answers and sorry for my mistake.

a second thanks for the quick answers