Date format conversion how to change this from using nawk to awk

UNIX for Beginners Q & A
1

Hi,

I have a file where I need to change the date format on the nth field from DD-MM-YYYY to YYYY-MM-DD so I can accurately sort the record by dates

From regex - Use sed or awk to fix date format - Stack Overflow, I found an example using nawk.

Test run as below:

$: cat xyz.txt
A                    21-11-2017 03:18:37 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    11-07-2017 03:35:07 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    14-07-2017 11:22:26 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    21-07-2017 02:15:47 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    21-08-2017 02:16:07 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    21-09-2017 02:16:15 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I                    21-10-2017 03:17:36 TESTING 17-06-2017 22:00:42 Accessed:   2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
 $:
 $: nawk '
>     BEGIN { }
>     { split($2, date, /-/)
>       $2 = date[3] "-" date[2] "-" date[1]
>           split($5, date, /-/)
>       $5 = date[3] "-" date[2] "-" date[1]
>       print $0
>     }
> ' xyz.txt
A 2017-11-21 03:18:37 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-07-11 03:35:07 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-07-14 11:22:26 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-07-21 02:15:47 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-08-21 02:16:07 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-09-21 02:16:15 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
I 2017-10-21 03:17:36 TESTING 2017-06-17 22:00:42 Accessed: 2,618,310,656 /tmp/abc.dbf
 $:

Unfortunately, some of the Solaris servers, Solaris8, do not have nawk and using awk gives error below.

 awk '
>      BEGIN { }
>      { split($2, date, /-/)
>        $2 = date[3] "-" date[2] "-" date[1]
>            split($5, date, /-/)
>        $5 = date[3] "-" date[2] "-" date[1]
>        print $0
>      }
>  ' xyz.txt
awk: syntax error near line 3
awk: illegal statement near line 3
awk: syntax error near line 5
awk: illegal statement near line 5

May I know how to get what I am wanting to do to work using awk?

Please advise. Thanks.

2

Hello newbie_01,

On a Solaris/SunOS system, change awk to /usr/xpg4/bin/awk , /usr/xpg6/bin/awk .

Thanks,
R. Singh

3

Thanks. Tested using /usr/xpg4/bin/awk works fine.