# awk syntax error **URL:** \ **Category:** UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers\ **Created:** [June 14, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027 "2005-06-14T11:41:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/1 "2005-06-14T11:41:29Z")
can anyone see the awk syntax error near line 1? I keep getting this error and I'm not familiar with awk very well yet so it is hard for me to see the errors. fyi: deleteuser\* refers to files in the directory where each one ends with a different date ls -1 /mfupload/prod02/ftp/deleteuser\* | while read line do cat $line | awk -F '|' {printf "%s|%\n", $5, $3} \>\> ftp.dat done ---
**Author:** ![bhargav](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/bhargav/32/130_2.png) [@bhargav](https://community.unix.com/u/bhargav)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:46am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/2 "2005-06-14T11:46:01Z")
cat $line replace it by echo $line ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/just_ice/32/165_2.png) [@Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/u/Just_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/3 "2005-06-14T11:52:49Z")
instead of this ... ```nohighlight cat $line | awk -F '|' {printf "%s|%\n", $5, $3} >> ftp.dat ``` try this ... ```nohighlight cat $line | awk -F "|" '{printf "%s|%\n", $5, $3}' >> ftp.dat ``` ---
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:55am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/4 "2005-06-14T11:55:21Z")
why? I honestly don't know why echo is correct, please explain. ---
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 11:57am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/5 "2005-06-14T11:57:18Z")
changing the single quotes to double did not fix the error, sorry ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/just_ice/32/165_2.png) [@Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/u/Just_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 12:06pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/6 "2005-06-14T12:06:01Z")
... i think you're missing the single quotes around the curly brackets ... see bold red ... ```nohighlight cat $line | awk -F "|" '{printf "%s|%\n", $5, $3}' >> ftp.dat ``` ---
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/7 "2005-06-14T12:18:30Z")
sorry, those single quotes didn't do the trick either. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/just_ice/32/165_2.png) [@Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/u/Just_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/8 "2005-06-14T12:24:17Z")
i actually tested your code on one of my files and it does work as i wrote it ... try the cat-awk line on one of your input files from the command line --- if it works there, it should work in the loop too ... if not, maybe your cat-awk line doesn't really correspond to your input file ... btw, can you post your actual error? ---
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/9 "2005-06-14T12:29:55Z")
awk: syntax error near line 1 awk: bailing out near line 1 Tue 06/14/05 12:16:57 : Loading Database ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/just_ice/32/165_2.png) [@Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/u/Just_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/10 "2005-06-14T12:32:45Z")
please post your actual code as you wrote it too ... ---
**Author:** ![reborg](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/reborg/32/167_2.png) [@reborg](https://community.unix.com/u/reborg)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/11 "2005-06-14T14:41:41Z")
Is this correct, are you sure you done want an 's' after it? ```nohighlight printf "%s|%\n", $5, $3 ``` Anyway the problem you are having is that many versions of awk do not tolerate a space after -F. the command should be ```nohighlight cat $line | awk -F"|" '{printf "%s|%s\n", $5, $3}' >> ftp.dat or cat $line | awk -F\| '{printf "%s|%s\n", $5, $3}' >> ftp.dat or cat $line | awk -F"|" '{printf "%s|%s\n", $5, $3}' >> ftp.dat ``` Altough I would probaby just use ```nohighlight awk -F\| '{print $5"|"$3}' $line >> ftp.dat ``` ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/just_ice/32/165_2.png) [@Just\_Ice](https://community.unix.com/u/Just_Ice)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/12 "2005-06-14T21:33:20Z")
> [@reborg](#): > > Anyway the problem you are having is that many versions of awk do not tolerate a space after -F reborg might be right ... i tested with no spaces after the "-F" as that is how i use the command by default but wrote down the code line as you did it ... ---
**Author:** ![k11](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/k11/32/6_449c533f586939b6e5f246632a46421f.png) [@k11](https://community.unix.com/u/k11)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/awk-syntax-error/154027/13 "2005-06-15T10:00:40Z")
thanks, that did the trick, those nasty spaces! appreciate the help!