How to pass a Awk variable to another script

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Read parameter from a text file with one line which stored the date value like 20080831; below is the awk command I used

gawk -F, "{getline RunDate;print $RunDate" text file

When print $RunDate, it display 20080831

Would like to pass this variable to another script to use but not successful.

Please advice. Thanks

2

Are you sure it's print $RunDate and not print RunDate? You don't normally prefix awk variables with $ unless you are referring to field numbers.

You can assign the output to a shell variable using something like:

rundate=$(gawk -F, 'BEGIN { getline; print $1}' textfile)

I used $1 because I'm guessing that RunDate is the first field in the input file.

3

Are you saying your file is a single line containing the string "20080831"?

4

Annihilannic, I noticed the $ also. But for some reason "getline RunDate; print $RunDate" actually outputs "20080831"

5

Normal awks complain, but it seems gawk treats $var where var contains a string the same way as $0. Interesting!

In which case, the OP may as well just use rundate=$(cat textfile) or read rundate < textfile.

6

Thanks for the quick response. But I am very new on the AWK and script writing. Yes, the file only contain the date. The script is running on Window. What will be the exact syntax? I am trying to read the file, get the date and pass the date as a variable to execute for a program.
Thanks for your help.

7

So you're running this from the Windows command prompt? If so, you should mention that when you are posting on forums on Unix.com. :slight_smile:

The advice I have given so far will only work on Unix or a Unix-like shell such as Cygwin.

What kind of script is the other one you need to pass the variable to?