awk - script sequence problem?

[u856100]

Hello,

I have another little annoying niggle in awk.

I can get around the problem, but for future reference, I would like to know why. I have the following script :

run with
# my_awk_script

cat $1 | awk -F"|" '
$1 ~ /^249$/ {printf("%s|%s|%s|%s DAN HOWARD|\n",$1,$2,$3,$4);next}
/^DAN HOWARD|$/ {next}
/^Dan Howard|$/ {next}
{print $0}' >> modD0125_$1

what I am trying to do is make :

ZHV|
blah blah blah|1234|abcd|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
blah blah blah|5678|efgh|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
ZPT|


look like :

ZHV|
blah blah blah|1234|abcd|zzz, DAN HOWARD|
blah blah blah|5678|efgh|zzz, DAN HOWARD|
ZPT|


but when I use the above script, awk omits the
{print $0}

and I get the following :

blah blah blah|1234|abcd|zzz, DAN HOWARD|
blah blah blah|5678|efgh|zzz, DAN HOWARD|

(my header and footer is missing)

but if I use the following, everything works fine.

cat $1 | awk -F"|" '
$1 ~ /^249$/ {printf("%s|%s|%s|%s DAN HOWARD|\n",$1,$2,$3,$4);next}
$1 ~ /^ZHV$/ {print $0}
$1 ~ /^ZPT$/ {print $0}
/^DAN HOWARD|$/ {next}
/^Dan Howard|$/ {next}' >> modD0125_$1

it obviously has something to do with the ordering, but I can't see what (do pipe chars need to be escaped?)

any ideas?

thanks in advance!
John

[harry d brown jr]

John,

What the .... is this:

$1 ~ /^249$/

??

Is that a ctrl-249 then a $ sign ??

live free or die
harry

[harry d brown jr]

John,

The issue I guess was your listed input of

ZHV|
blah blah blah|1234|abcd|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
blah blah blah|5678|efgh|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
ZPT|

Which contains no "249"'s.

live free or die
harry

[Jean-Louis Phelix]

Hi,

My problem is that it seems to work on my system ... but your test case doesn't match your script (like first field equals 249), so perhaps I made something wrong in my program which makes it work ...

Regards.

[u856100]

Hi Harry,

I was using $1 ~ /^249$/ to match the first field ($1) of all rows that start (^) with the numeric 249 only (hence the (^ ....... $) to ensure I only get fields that are 249 alone and not 2491234, etc.

Jean,

Hmm strange, we are on HP-UX 11.00. I am a bit confused as to why it isn't working, It seems to only work one way on my machine (HP 'N' class), nevermind, at least I have a work around,

thanks for your responses guys
John

[harry d brown jr]

John,

If I change your "blah blah blah"'s to 249, then the script works:

# ./tyu uyt
ZHV|
249|1234|abcd|zzz, DAN HOWARD|
249|5678|efgh|zzz, DAN HOWARD|
ZPT|
# cat ./tyu uyt
#!/usr/bin/ksh
#
cat $1 | awk -F"|" '
$1 ~ /^249$/ {printf("%s|%s|%s|%s DAN HOWARD|\n",$1,$2,$3,$4);next}
/^DAN HOWARD\|$/ {next}
/^Dan Howard\|$/ {next}
{print $0}'
ZHV|
249|1234|abcd|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
249|5678|efgh|zzz,
DAN HOWARD|
ZPT|
#


live free or die
harry

[u856100]

Jean, I see what you mean!

here is an example file :

ZHV|
249|1100019210315|20021105|DAN HOWARD.|
249|1100000348295|20021105|DAN HOWARD.|
ZPT|

cheers
John

[harry d brown jr]

John,

that input doesn't work either.

ZHV|
249|1100019210315|20021105|DAN HOWARD.|
249|1100000348295|20021105|DAN HOWARD.|
ZPT|

??

live free or die
harry