awk syntax to print particular record of xyz file?
 

Hi.

Can anyone help me with the awk syntax to print a particular record of an xyz file?

Thanks.

this sounds an awful lot like homework to me, and your question is pretty vague... what defines a "record" to you? how do yo intend to identity said record?

Hi,

awk '{ print $2 }' infile => prints field number 2
if a line looks like this: A B C D, then B will be printed in the previous example.

If separator isn't a space/tab:
awk -F: '{ print $4 }' infile => prints field number 4
if a line looks like this: V:W:X:Y:Z, then Y will be printed in the previous example.

man awk for the details.

Hope this helps.

Thanks druuna.

awk -v FS="\n" was what I needed

If you download the gawk package source you can use the "make pdf" target to produce the book: "Gawk: Effective Awk Programming".