topic Re: Simple awk problem in Operating System - HP-UX

Simple awk problem

Belinda Dermody — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:08:02 GMT

I have a file with many lines and each line has variable number of fields. I always need the next to last field for a report. How can I get the next to last field of each line in variable fields line.

Re: Simple awk problem

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:14:41 GMT

Hi,

Try this way

cat file|awk '{print $(NF-1)}'

-Sri

Re: Simple awk problem

Rodney Hills — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:15:00 GMT

NF is number of fields on the record. You can then do the following-

awk '{NN=NF-1; print $NN}' yourfile

HTH

-- Rod Hills

Re: Simple awk problem

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:15:53 GMT

Hi James:

# awk '{print $(NF-1)}' filename

For example:

# echo "1 2 3\na b\nh e l l o !"|awk '{print $(NF-1)}'

...prints:

2
a
o

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Simple awk problem

Belinda Dermody — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:20:40 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply and they both work, 10 points to the first and 9 for the others.

Re: Simple awk problem

James R. Ferguson — Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:23:33 GMT

Hi:

Do you *really* consider the timestamps of the three replies to differ?

...JRF...

Re: Simple awk problem

Belinda Dermody — Fri, 27 Sep 2002 11:27:15 GMT

Ah come on Jim, I gave you 9 points even though your answer was the same Sridhar. At least I give points to everyone that responds. I see a lot of responses where there is none or just to one. I even assign points that do not even come close to the subject.

Re: Simple awk problem

Robin Wakefield — Fri, 27 Sep 2002 11:45:03 GMT

To be honest, Jim's was the "better" solution, as you should always take advantage of a command's capabilities to open a file rather than use cat/pipe and therefore waste a process.

Rgds, Robin

Re: Simple awk problem

Belinda Dermody — Fri, 27 Sep 2002 15:38:07 GMT

Robin, your are correct, but I wasn't using the cat in my process, it was at the end of a ps command that was piped into grep -v |piped into a sort and then finally the awk to print the next to last field.

Re: Simple awk problem

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Fri, 27 Sep 2002 16:34:17 GMT

I often use awk as receiver to commands and that sense was carried in the post too.

Since you mentioned that you had the file, JRF's solution stands as the most correct one though this is all about the idea of using NF-1.

With the time stamps, you can understand that everyone responded at the same time and that's what JRF was mentioning about.

You are appreciated for your promptness in assigning the points.

-Sri