Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!lugnut From: lugnut@sequent.UUCP (Don Bolton) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell Subject: Re: How to get AWK to output 2 fields at once Message-ID: <46366@sequent.UUCP> Date: 13 Nov 90 20:21:52 GMT References: <297@twg.bc.ca> <9622@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1990Oct29.171816.7459@mrspoc.Transact.COM> Reply-To: lugnut@sequent.UUCP (Don Bolton) Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc Lines: 54 In article <1990Oct29.171816.7459@mrspoc.Transact.COM> itkin@guinan.Transact.COM writes: >jak9213@helios.TAMU.EDU (John Kane) writes: > >>In article <297@twg.bc.ca> bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes: >>>I have what initially seemed to be a simple requirement: get the first >>>two fields from each line in file_1, and use them as a search pattern for >>>GREP to extract matching lines in file_2. [...] > >>>for x in `cat file_1 | awk '{ print $1 " " $2 }'` >>>do >>> grep "$x" file_2 >>>done > >>>Of course, the GREP routine executed with x having the value of the first >>>field of the first line of file_1, then with the value of the second >>>field of the first line of file_1, then the first field of the second >>>line, ..... > >>>Is there a way to get AWK to output "field_1 field_2" as the value of x, >>>so that this can be used as the search pattern for GREP, rather than >>>"field_1" "field_2" "field_1" "field_2"? > >>Yep, There is. > >>for x in `cat file_1 | awk '{print "\"" $1 " " $2 "\"")'` >>do >> grep "$x" file_2 >>done > >This seems a bit complicated, doesn't it? How about: > > for x in "`cat file_1 | awk '{print $1, $2}'`" > do > grep "$x" file_2 > done > >That is, why worry about the backslashes and quotes INSIDE AWK, when you >can put them outside? Clean and simple! except the for statement still loops for EACH argument retrieved by your awk statement. SOOOO... try #Place in a _ to join $1 and $2 so the for loop sees a single arg for x in `cat file_1 | awk '{print $1"_"$2}'` do #Using the -F option for awk, remove the joiner for use by grep blarg=`echo $x | awk -F_ '{print $1, $2}'` grep $blarg file_2 done Now you'll get what you want