Problem with changing FS

[Scott McNeilly]

Here are two scripts, one uses awk on tru64 Unix 5.1b, and the other uses
gawk on the same computer.

The first one, using awk as supplied with the tru64 OS, works.  The second,
using gawk 3.1.5, doesn't work as expected.

 

Here is first one, with output:

 

echo 'Hi'

line='dyn~11-SEP-07~isir_load_date'

echo 'line=' $line

var=`echo $line | awk '{{ FS = "~"} { print $2}}'`

echo 'var=' $var

lab=`echo $line | awk '{{ FS = "~"} { print $3}}'`

echo 'lab=' $lab

if [ "$var" = "" ]; then

      echo 'variable has no value'

 else

   echo $var

fi

 

Hi

line= dyn~11-SEP-07~isir_load_date

var= 11-SEP-07

lab= isir_load_date

11-SEP-07

 

Here is second one, with output.  It appears that the change to the FS
variable fails, that is, the assignment of "~" to FS fails.

 

echo 'Hi'

line='dyn~11-SEP-07~isir_load_date'

echo 'line=' $line

var=`echo $line | gawk '{{ FS = "~"} { print $2}}'`

echo 'var=' $var

lab=`echo $line | gawk '{{ FS = "~"} { print $3}}'`

echo 'lab=' $lab

if [ "$var" = "" ]; then

      echo 'variable has no value'

 else

   echo $var

fi

 

Hi

line= dyn~11-SEP-07~isir_load_date

var=

lab=

variable has no value

 

 

 

Scott McNeilly

Information Technology

Community College of Rhode Island

400 East Avenue

Warwick, RI  02886

401-825-2005