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From: pjh@otter.hpl.hp.com (Patrick Hyland)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: sh parameters in awk
Message-ID: <1170015@otter.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 20 Jan 89 20:01:59 GMT
References: <7334@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Lines: 30

>   fdelim="c "
>   awk '
>      BEGIN {
>         bd = "d "
>         fdelim = "'${fdelim}'"
>      }
>   ' hl_l1

When fdelim is "c ", after parameter substitution has been done on the
awk command, awk has three arguments (the space in "c " acts as a field
delimiter). The first of these arguments is:

   'BEGIN {
      bd = "d "
      fdelim = "c'

and awk correctly rejects this.

The following does what you want:

   fdelim="c "
   awk '
      BEGIN {
         bd = "d "
         fdelim = "'"${fdelim}"'"
      }
   ' hl_l1

						Patrick Hyland.
				   Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, England.