[PLUG] awk: is field blank?

[Robert Citek]

Sorry, this item didn't get pasted in my last post:

$ echo -e "a\tb\tc\td\na\tb\t\td" | awk '{print $1" = "$2" = "$3" = "$4}'
a = b = c = d
a = b = d =

Notice that you have to specify the field separator with the -F option,
otherwise awk compresses consecutive whitespace characters by default.

Regards,
- Robert

On Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 9:41 AM Robert Citek <robert.citek at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Rich,
>
> Here's a sample:
>
> $ echo -e "a\tb\tc\td\na\tb\t\td" | awk -F'\t' '{print}'
> a b c d
> a b   d
>
> $ echo -e "a\tb\tc\td\na\tb\t\td" | awk -F'\t' '$3=="" {print}'
> a b   d
>
> Good luck and let us know how it goes.
>
> Regards,
> - Robert
>
> On Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 9:31 AM Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I've a 351K line file with 8 fields. About 50K of those lines has $8
>> blank.
>> I want awk to print only rows with values in all 8 fields. I'm not finding
>> how to tell awk to print $0 if $8 is not blank.
>>
>> My awk/sed book doesn't seem to have this information and my web searches
>> aren't finding the answer, either.
>>
>> Clue needed.
>>
>> Rich
>>
>