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Scripting - How To Use A Variable Inside An Awk Statement - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

A user asked how to use a variable inside an awk statement. Several responders provided solutions using awk's -v option to pass the variable or using environment variables. The best solution was to use -v without slashes and to read the variable directly without getting/printing to avoid issues with backslashes. The user confirmed this worked for their script.

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Oscar Daza
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13 views

Scripting - How To Use A Variable Inside An Awk Statement - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

A user asked how to use a variable inside an awk statement. Several responders provided solutions using awk's -v option to pass the variable or using environment variables. The best solution was to use -v without slashes and to read the variable directly without getting/printing to avoid issues with backslashes. The user confirmed this worked for their script.

Uploaded by

Oscar Daza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to use a variable inside an awk Ask Question

statement? [duplicate]

This question already has an answer


here:
Pass shell variable as a /pattern/
to awk 5 answers

I have a script like this

#!/bin/ksh
echo "Enter the matching pattern"
read pattern
path= /home/siva/
echo "Navigating to $path"
cd $path
cat filename|awk '/$pattern/ {for (i=1; i<=10; i++) {getline;print}}'

i am not able to get the entered


$pattern when i execute the script.
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edited Nov 29 '16 at 13:07
fedorqui
3,892 2 18 53

asked Nov 29 '16 at 12:53


Siva
1

marked as duplicate by
steeldriver, Stéphane
Chazelas, dhag, techraf,
GAD3R Nov 29 '16 at 14:02
This question has been asked
before and already has an
answer. If those answers do not
fully address your question,
please ask a new question.

Try to format your question. – Kalavan


Nov 29 '16 at 13:06

2 You mean something like awk -v


pattern=$pattern '/$pattern/ {for
(i=1; i<=10; i++)
{getline;print}}' ? please try to
edit your code so it's readable –
Dani_l Nov 29 '16 at 13:06

1 @Dani_l no, this would look for a


literal $pattern . Instead, you have
to say $0 ~ pattern . In general, you
cannot use variables within / /
because awk does not have a way to
distinguish them from literal text. –
fedorqui Nov 29 '16 at 13:08

2 Answers

echo | awk -v variable='This is variab

You pass variables with -v keyword.


And don't use $ for variable - it is not
a bash. Awk uses $ to access a field.

edited Nov 29 '16 at 16:18

answered Nov 29 '16 at 13:06


Kalavan
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I sawand
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already
posting my comment – Dani_l Nov 29
'16 at 13:07

1 Note that some awk implementations


need the variabl=... to be a
separate argument from -v , so awk
-v variable=... is more portable
than awk -vvariable=... . –
Stéphane Chazelas Nov 29 '16 at
14:37

#!/bin/ksh
echo "Enter the matching pattern"
IFS= read -r pattern
path=/home/siva/
echo "Navigating to $path"
cd "$path" || exit
awk -v pattern="$pattern" '$0 ~ patter

1. Use awk -v to pass variables into


the awk script
2. cat is unnecessary - awk can
handle files directly

edited Nov 29 '16 at 13:30


Stéphane Chazelas
281k 53 518 849

answered Nov 29 '16 at 13:09


Dani_l
2,997 9 28

awk -v pattern=$pattern '/$0 ~ pattern/


{for (i=1; i<=10; i++) {getline;print}}'
filename' - This doesn't work, – Siva
Nov 29 '16 at 13:19

Try without the slashes, as per my last


edit – Dani_l Nov 29 '16 at 13:23

Dani... Perfect. That worked!! – Siva


Nov 29 '16 at 13:24

1 Using -v mangles backslash


characters, using environment
variables and
ENVIRON["the_variable"] in awk
is a better approach considering that
regular expressions often contain
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– and to show you relevant ads and job listings. By using our site, you
Stéphane Chazelas Nov
acknowledge that you have read and understand 29our
'16 at , , and our . Your use of
13:31
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2 a=aaa defines a shell variable. You
need to export it if you want it passed
as an environment variable to awk ,
or use a=aaaa awk 'BEGIN{print
ENVIRON["a"]}' . See the dup
question for details. –
Stéphane Chazelas Nov 29 '16 at
14:28

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