printing multiple columns with awk

kdelover · 12-15-2009, 12:58 PM

Hi people,

I have a text file which has the output in this fashion

Code:

-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file.txt
-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file1.txt
-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file2 my file.txt
-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file3 my file,txt

Can any one tell me is there any way of printing the entire filename (including the spaces)?

Code:

awk -F" " '{print $6}'

only prints file2 & file3 as output where as i expect it to print the entire filename which may have any number of spaces.

Thanks

druuna · 12-15-2009, 01:05 PM

Hi,

Do you have to use awk?

cut -d" " -f7- infile

Hope this helps.

kdelover · 12-15-2009, 01:19 PM

hi,

Thanks it works.Ill check it out if i can use this in my programme. I am trying to read a file which say has contents of ls -l in it,and extract the file names from it and add it to a database,so if a file name has spaces in it my script is failing.Ill try it out with cut.

EDIT: -f1,3 prints 1 and 3
-f1-3 prints 1 to 3
-f1- prints 1 to infinte

got it thanks.

It would be nice to know how to do the same using awk and print a range of columns.

druuna · 12-15-2009, 01:57 PM

Hi,

Only awk solution I can think of at the moment is this:

awk 'BEGIN { OFS="" ; ORS="" } ; { for ( i=6; i<NF; i++ ) print $i " "; print $NF "\n" }' infile

Hope this helps.

pixellany · 12-15-2009, 02:20 PM

Code:

awk -F":[0-9][0-9] " '{print $2}' filename

druuna · 12-15-2009, 02:28 PM

@pixellany: That is very short and compact. Nice!

pixellany · 12-15-2009, 02:39 PM

Code:

awk -F":" '{print substr($3,4)}' filename

Someone stop me.........

kdelover · 12-15-2009, 03:58 PM

Thanks pixel and drruna,id be glad if you can tell me how

awk 'BEGIN { OFS="" ; ORS="" } ; { for ( i=6; i<NF; i++ ) print $i " "; print $NF "\n" }' infile

and

awk -F":" '{print substr($3,4)}' filename

are working :-) thanks to all.

ghostdog74 · 12-15-2009, 06:59 PM

Code:

awk '{$1=$2=$3=$4=$5="";sub(/^ +/,"")}1'   file

ghostdog74 · 12-15-2009, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Code:

awk -F":" '{print substr($3,4)}' filename

Someone stop me.........

file name can contain ":" as well

pixellany · 12-15-2009, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

file name can contain ":" as well

Missing your point....(I'm slow)

pixellany · 12-15-2009, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kdelover

Thanks pixel and drruna,id be glad if you can tell me how

<<snip>>

awk -F":" '{print substr($3,4)}' filename

are working :-) thanks to all.

I assume you are familiar with the basics of AWK**.....

Having defined ":" as the IFS, the third field is ---e.g.:
"51 file2 my file.txt"

The substr function returns the string, starting with the 4th character.

**If not, go here:
http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/

druuna · 12-16-2009, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kdelover

Thanks pixel and drruna,id be glad if you can tell me how

awk 'BEGIN { OFS="" ; ORS="" } ; { for ( i=6; i<NF; i++ ) print $i " "; print $NF "\n" }' infile

Like pixellany, I do assume a basic understanding of awk.

The command given:
- sets the output field and record separator (OFS and ORS) to NULL, which makes sure that all is printed on the same line.
- prints fields number 6 up to the last field (NF holds the last field) on one line,
- the print $NF "\n" prints the last field and a carriage return (thus making sure all entries are on their own line).

Hope this clears things up a bit.

ghostdog74 · 12-16-2009, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Missing your point....(I'm slow)

if input has

Code:

-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file2:my:file.txt

then by using -F":", the field numbers will be wrong.

pixellany · 12-16-2009, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

if input has

Code:

-rw-rw-r-- joe/joe  312 2002-05-07 09:38:51 file2:my:file.txt

then by using -F":", the field numbers will be wrong.

Of course!! But then, why would anyone put ":" in filenames?

Seriously, many of the solutions that we come up with are not robust---you're one of the people that keeps people like me honest....

Sometimes the discussions in programming turn out to be "cleverness" contests---and the results---while educational---are not what you would want to use for "real work".