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Old 06-07-2010, 12:15 AM   #1
PMP
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Awk issue !!


The following code snippet it that is hanging me up.

The value of c and b are equal numerically. But with the operation I am doing with c the value of c is implicity changing to type string and the comparision is then for string not for numeric values. (My understanding)

Code:
BEGIN   {
        a = 0
        b = 0
        c = 0

c=sprintf("%5.2f",b)
gsub(" ","0",c)
gsub("[.]","",c)

print "c = "c
print "b = "b

if ( c != b )
{
        print "b and c are not equal"
}
else
{
        print "c and b are equal"
}

}
And if I force c to be numeric before comparison

by

Code:
c+=0
The comparison becomes numeric but the value of c is trimmed to a single 0.

Is there any way to cope with this. i.e comparison to be numeric without typecasting.

I am using GNU Awk 3.1.5
 
Old 06-07-2010, 12:44 AM   #2
grail
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Hi PMP

Your issue would seem to stem from the fact you are using a string based function (namely sprintf) to alter your numeric value.
Quote:
sprintf(format, expression1, ...)
This returns (without printing) the string that printf would have printed out with the same arguments (see Printf).
Once you pass this line you now have a string.
 
Old 06-07-2010, 01:05 AM   #3
PMP
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Correct !!

Not sure why but I have an HP-UX 11.00 box and this code work fine there !!
 
Old 06-07-2010, 03:12 AM   #4
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Same version of [g]awk?
 
Old 06-07-2010, 03:14 AM   #5
PMP
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No, unable to figure out what version is there. Hopefully it is the one that comes with HP UX box
 
Old 06-07-2010, 03:20 AM   #6
PMP
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Got this from gawk man page
Quote:
Gawk performs comparisons as follows: If two variables are
numeric, they are compared numerically. If one value is
numeric and the other has a string value that is a
``numeric string,'' then comparisons are also done numeri-
cally. Otherwise, the numeric value is converted to a
string and a string comparison is performed. Two strings
are compared, of course, as strings.
According to the
POSIX standard, even if two strings are numeric strings, a
numeric comparison is performed. However, this is clearly
incorrect, and gawk does not do this.

Not able to understand the part marked in Red
 
Old 06-07-2010, 08:17 PM   #7
grail
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Quote:
No, unable to figure out what version is there. Hopefully it is the one that comes with HP UX box
hmmm... so this does not work:
Code:
gawk --version
And I think I can make sense of the test not working.

When you do the print prior to the test of 'c' it is four (4) zeroes (0): c = 0000
You have converted this to a string so you can see the padding and therefore it is now a string.

The bit that you think should work is:
Quote:
If one value is numeric and the other has a string value that is a ``numeric string,''
The problem with this is that the string "0000" is not numeric where as "0" is.

As a proof to this I changed the code:
Code:
BEGIN   {
    a = 0
    b = 0
    c = 0

    c=sprintf("%5.2f",b)
    gsub(" ","",c)
    gsub("[.]00","",c) #now c is just equal to a single 0

    print "c = "c
    print "b = "b

    if ( c != b )
        print "b and c are not equal"
    else
        print "c and b are equal"
}
This now produces the results you seek.
 
Old 06-08-2010, 01:14 AM   #8
PMP
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No, HP UX box has awk that comes with HP UX, not gwak, so this code will not return anything.

Code:
gawk --version
Quote:
If one value is
numeric and the other has a string value that is a
``numeric string,'' then comparisons are also done numeri-
cally.
Here c becomes a string as I am assigning the return of sprintf to it, b is still numerical.

Now with the avobe statement the comparision should be numerical. But it's not. Confused !!

Aditionally I tried --compat, --traditional modes with gwak to behave it like awk, but that's not as well.

Last edited by PMP; 06-08-2010 at 01:15 AM.
 
Old 06-08-2010, 02:20 AM   #9
grail
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Quote:
Now with the avobe statement the comparision should be numerical. But it's not. Confused !!
No the comparison will not be numeric as you have not passed it a 'numeric string'.

Numeric string is - "1" or "1234"

But is not - "01" or "0001234"

As soon as you pad the number it is no longer recognised as a numeric value but a string containing those characters.

You could throw int() at the value of c and convert it back but the i would not see the point of creating c the way you have??
 
  


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