i am reading a database flat file with the "awk" command which has 4 fields separated by colon ":" .I want to show the output of these fields in a certain way that every record is numbered e.g

1.some text
2.some text

Is there a way to do this?Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

I don't see the correlation between the question you asked (regarding the 4 fields separated by colons) and the desired output you showed in your example.

If you simply want to display a file, showing the contained colon-separated-values on a line-by-line basis, why won't `cat -n` work? Further, pipe the output of `cat -n` into awk of you want to do something more to it.

If I have missed the point, please explain more, perhaps with a more "realistic" example, showing the sort of output you desire, including how the output is to be numbered as well as how the "4 colon separated fields" are to be displayed.

Best regards,
Sasha

EDIT: P.S. perhaps I'm not understanding the initial format of this "flat file" so if that appears to be the case, please also describe the file, it is something other than some sort of ascii file.

What Sasha said ... but in a generic manner:
will print any record with its line-number.

@ Tink -- perfect, toss the cat out thanks!

Now there's an idiomatic phrase I hadn't come across
before ... what does it mean (in Nova Scotia?)?

Heh, no, there's no geographical significance -- simply what it says: no need to use `cat`

Oh ... I must be in too silly a mindset at the moment ;}

My apologies to the OP for the digression.

Thanks for replies, here is the detail:
my original file looks like this:-
A100:Annie Marie's Dance Academy:123:1500
F110:Frankies Repair Shop:1123:250
S100:Sandra's Counselling Service:67:500
A100:Annie Marie's Dance Academy:254:500

and i want it look like this

1.A100:Annie Marie's Dance Academy:123:1500
2.F110:Frankies Repair Shop:1123:250
3.S100:Sandra's Counselling Service:67:500
4.A100:Annie Marie's Dance Academy:254:500

i think i am a lil clear now....lol

Well, in that case my micro-snippet is all you need; with a small modification.

Perfectly clear

So, did you try what Tinkster suggested? (EDIT: ahh yes, the "." added in there)

Well spotted, Captain!

This is the command: awk -F ":" '$1 ~ /'$custNum'/ {print NR".", $0;}{print $1,$2,$3,$4}' purchases.dat > temp
This is my output:
A100 Annie Marie's Dance Academy 123 1500
F110 Frankies Repair Shop 1123 250
3. S100:Sandra's Counselling Service:67:500
S100 Sandra's Counselling Service 67 500
A100 Annie Marie's Dance Academy 254 500

Its only numbering the record for which i am searching for

And what is the desired result?

Ok thanks for your help. I appreciate it

i knew this site is cool....i can get help here i love this open source LIVE LONG LINUX