Info Catalog gawk: Single Character Fields gawk: Field Separators gawk: Full Line Fields

gawk: Command Line Field Separator

 
 4.5.4 Setting 'FS' from the Command Line
 ----------------------------------------
 
 'FS' can be set on the command line.  Use the '-F' option to do so.  For
 example:
 
      awk -F, 'PROGRAM' INPUT-FILES
 
 sets 'FS' to the ',' character.  Notice that the option uses an
 uppercase 'F' instead of a lowercase 'f'.  The latter option ('-f')
 specifies a file containing an 'awk' program.
 
    The value used for the argument to '-F' is processed in exactly the
 same way as assignments to the predefined variable 'FS'.  Any special
 characters in the field separator must be escaped appropriately.  For
 example, to use a '\' as the field separator on the command line, you
 would have to type:
 
      # same as FS = "\\"
      awk -F\\\\ '...' files ...
 
 Because '\' is used for quoting in the shell, 'awk' sees '-F\\'.  Then
 'awk' processes the '\\' for escape characters (Escape
 Sequences), finally yielding a single '\' to use for the field
 separator.
 
    As a special case, in compatibility mode (Options), if the
 argument to '-F' is 't', then 'FS' is set to the TAB character.  If you
 type '-F\t' at the shell, without any quotes, the '\' gets deleted, so
 'awk' figures that you really want your fields to be separated with TABs
 and not 't's.  Use '-v FS="t"' or '-F"[t]"' on the command line if you
 really do want to separate your fields with 't's.  Use '-F '\t'' when
 not in compatibility mode to specify that TABs separate fields.
 
    As an example, let's use an 'awk' program file called 'edu.awk' that
 contains the pattern '/edu/' and the action 'print $1':
 
      /edu/   { print $1 }
 
    Let's also set 'FS' to be the '-' character and run the program on
 the file 'mail-list'.  The following command prints a list of the names
 of the people that work at or attend a university, and the first three
 digits of their phone numbers:
 
      $ awk -F- -f edu.awk mail-list
      -| Fabius       555
      -| Samuel       555
      -| Jean
 
 Note the third line of output.  The third line in the original file
 looked like this:
 
      Jean-Paul    555-2127     jeanpaul.campanorum@nyu.edu     R
 
    The '-' as part of the person's name was used as the field separator,
 instead of the '-' in the phone number that was originally intended.
 This demonstrates why you have to be careful in choosing your field and
 record separators.
 
    Perhaps the most common use of a single character as the field
 separator occurs when processing the Unix system password file.  On many
 Unix systems, each user has a separate entry in the system password
 file, with one line per user.  The information in these lines is
 separated by colons.  The first field is the user's login name and the
 second is the user's encrypted or shadow password.  (A shadow password
 is indicated by the presence of a single 'x' in the second field.)  A
 password file entry might look like this:
 
      arnold:x:2076:10:Arnold Robbins:/home/arnold:/bin/bash
 
    The following program searches the system password file and prints
 the entries for users whose full name is not indicated:
 
      awk -F: '$5 == ""' /etc/passwd
 

Info Catalog gawk: Single Character Fields gawk: Field Separators gawk: Full Line Fields