You can assign values to AWK variables on the command line. Consult the man page for how AWK handles arguments of the form var=value.
It is not my intention to be rude, but after nearly 500 posts and nearly 7 years of membership, not having learned the basics does not reflect well. I realize that not everyone who seeks assistance is a professional administrator or programmer, but, still, this is a very fundamental question.
It's related because it mentions a mechanism with which you can pass information to AWK without piping (which for whatever reason you wish to avoid).
In the BEGIN clause, use the split function to place the different components of var into an array. You can then reference whichever member of the array you require.
I know, but it works and gives correct result for my OS, and if it works for SkySmart, there should not be any reason for not using it, other than its less portable?
wow. you learn something new every day! lol. thanks so much for the different replies. i just tested jotne's command in both linux and sunos and it works!