awk script using system COMMAND

[Glenn Morton_1]

I have an awk script that was reccommened on 10/7/02. See the my previous entry, for details.
Here is the line that I'm having a problem with.

COMMAND=("grep -q " substr($0,53,4) " /tmp/reffile")

The above line works, but it needs to have a variable for the file name, based on SITECODE. I tried $REFFILE, but it didn't work. This script will use different DATAFILE files, and REFFILE files, based on SITECODE.
See the attachment for the exact coding.
The attachment has additional comments.

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Glenn,

If you checked that thread, I posted one script purely in Shell that can be easily modified to fit your purposes. It will take care of things like this.

-Sri

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Glenn:

You can pass a variable into a 'awk' script thusly:

#!/usr/bin/sh
typeset THEFILE=$1
awk -v THEFILE="$THEFILE"'
{ if ($2~/455/) {
if (substr($4,17,6)=="abcdef") {
COMMAND=("grep -q " substr($4,1,4) " "THEFILE)
if (system(COMMAND))
{print $0 "XXbb"
}
else
{print $0 "XXYY"
}
close(COMMAND)
}
else
{print $0"bbbb"
}
}
else
{print $0
}
} ' /tmp/myinput

Regards!

...JRF...

[wyan lowe]

You might try this:

#!/bin/sh
#

FILE=$1
VAR=$2

echo "debug: file=$FILE var=$VAR"

echo "" | awk '{
printf "this is the '"${FILE}"' file.\n"
printf "and this the '"${VAR}"' variable\n"
}'

=======================
> ./pass_vars BLAH BLEH
debug: file=BLAH var=BLEH
this is the BLAH file.
and this the BLEH variable

> ./pass_vars "BLAH BLAH" "BLEH BLEH"
debug: file=BLAH BLAH var=BLEH BLEH
this is the BLAH BLAH file.
and this the BLEH BLEH variable

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi (again) Glenn:

...sorry, priority interrupt. In the case you have shown, I'd simply create a procedure (function) to which you pass the value of the input file (INPFILE) and the reference file (REFFILE). This will allow you to call the 'awk' code with variable arguments. Mind you, this is but one way you can implement this.

#!/usr/bin/sh
typeset INPFILE=$1
typeset REFFILE=$2
#
function filter
{
awk -v REFFILE=$REFFILE '
{ if ($2~/455/) {
if (substr($4,17,6)=="abcdef") {
COMMAND=("grep -q " substr($4,1,4) " "REFFILE)
if (system(COMMAND))
{print $0 "XXbb"
}
else
{print $0 "XXYY"
}
close(COMMAND)
}
else
{print $0"bbbb"
}
}
else
{print $0
}
} ' $INPFILE
} #_endof_filter
#
filter $INPFILE $REFFILE
exit 0

...since the indentation will be mangled here, I've also attached the above script.

Regards!

...JRF...