[PLUG] awk syntax

[Ken Stephens]

Rich Shepard wrote:
>     I'm re-reading the ORA 'sed&  awk' 2nd edition because I need to modify
> data files (>130K lines in one and>45K lines in another). Should be a
> simple script but I'm getting a syntax error trying to define the OFS.
>
>     Here's a line of the data file:
> 'D-1'|'2007-12-12'|'Ag'|0.000|
>
>     Since fields in the data file are delineated with '|'. I define FS = '|'
> in the BEGIN section, but awk doesn't like me to also define OFS there:
>
> awk: ./add-non-detect.awk:7: BEGIN { FS = "|" OFS = "|" }
> awk: ./add-non-detect.awk:7:                      ^ syntax error
>
>     There's no explicit example in the book, only statements that the default
> output field separator is a space, and that's applied by putting a comma
> after the field variable. What have I missed?
>
> Rich
>
>
>
Rich,

The page, http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html,  shows an 
example of two variables supplied in a "BEGIN" statement:

   $awk 'BEGIN { OFS = ";"; ORS = "\n\n" }


Looks like a semicolon is the separator here.

Ken