how to pipe/redirect awk output into a variable?

johnpaulodonnell · 01-25-2007, 07:22 AM

Hi.

I have a simple awk command to read the number of records in a file which is passed to it. I'd like to then save this output as a variable within a bash script. How is this done? The pipe I use below doesn't work.

awk '{ ++x } END { print x }' file_name | read my_variable

Similarly I get an error when I try:

read my_variable < awk '{ ++x } END { print x }' file_name

Thanks.

Guttorm · 01-25-2007, 07:49 AM

Hi

my_variable=$(command)

try:
my_variable=$(awk '{ ++x } END { print x }' file_name)

johnpaulodonnell · 01-25-2007, 07:54 AM

That's it.

Thanks!