How to parameterize which field awk should print?

dbland07666 · 10-29-2007, 02:14 PM

I have a script that runs awk and i want to parameterize which field awk prints. For example, go.sh contains:

#!/bin/bash
echo one two three | awk ' {print $2} '

I want to be able to pass set the field that awk prints at run time, eg, this would tell awk to print the 3rd field:

go.sh 3

I can't figure out how to do this.

b0uncer · 10-29-2007, 02:23 PM

Would this work, maybe?

Quote:

#!/bin/bash
# $1 is the first argument given; $0 is the script itself

echo one two three | awk ' {print $('$1')} '

Just a wild guess..

EDIT: now that I copypasted it, chmod'ed and ran, it seems it works - for me, at least..

Quote:

$ ./go.sh 1
one
$ ./go.sh 2
two
$ ./go.sh 3
three

Of course you'll want to test if the user gave an argument at all, or if the argument is a number at all, or if it's a sane number..things like that. Or at least write the program so that it's not doing anything nuts.

dbland07666 · 10-29-2007, 03:49 PM

Thanks -- that's exactly what I wanted

P.S. Is there a way to mark the thread as "answered"