Range of fields

[butterfm]

Hi,

Is there a way in awk to print a range of fields without using a for loop ?

e.g. A file contains:

a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h

How can I print fields 3 to 8 without using a for loop to get :

c,d,e,f,g,h

I've done it with a for loop but I get an error saying that the input line is too long.

Thanks,
M.

 

[feherke]

Hi

I searched for such solution too, but nothing found. But the [tt]for[/tt] has to work. Please paste that part of your script and show some sample input too.

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[vgersh99]

if on Solaris, try using either /usr/xpg4/bin/awk OR gawk [if you have one].

vlad
+----------------------------+
| #include<disclaimer.h> |
+----------------------------+

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for the replies

The for loop is :

for (i=4; i<NF; i++) printf "%s", $i","; i++; printf "%s", $i"\n"

I can't post the line because it's work sensitive but it would be about 10 lines wrapped round on a terminal window if catted from a file. Is there a limit on the size of teh line in awk.

Also i'm using MKS Toolkit which is a windows based Unix ksh emulator.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

[feherke]

Hi

Strange. As I know, on Linux only the available memory sets the limits. I would try using [tt]print[/tt], which is more resource friendly than [tt]printf[/tt].

OFS=""
for (i=4; i<NF; i++) print $i ","; print $NF "\n"

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[PHV]

And this ?
for (i=4; i<NF; ++i) printf "%s,", $i; print $(NF)

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

 

[PHV]

Or this ?
BEGIN {OFS=","}
...
for(i=1; i<=4; ++i) $i=""; x=$0; print x

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

 

[vgersh99]

yes, there's a limit for older awk-s - not sure what it's for MKS' awk.
you can try something like this under MKS:

echo '1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9' | cut -d ',' -f4-

vlad
+----------------------------+
| #include<disclaimer.h> |
+----------------------------+

 

[futurelet]

BEGIN { FS=OFS=","
  $0 = "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9"
  first = 4
  last = 8
  for (i=1;i<first;i++) $0=substr($0,length($1)+2)
  NF = last - first + 1
  print
}

Output:
[tt]
4,5,6,7,8[/tt]

 

[butterfm]

Thanks for all the help guys. Some great advice there. I'll give some of the ideas a go when I get back to work on Monday.

Thanks,
Matt.