How to solve awk: line 1: runaway string constant error?

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi All !

I am just trying to print bash variable in awk statement as string
here is my script

n=1
for file in `ls *.tk |sort -t"-" -k2n,2`; do
ak=`(awk 'FNR=='$n'{print $0}' res.dat)`

awk '{print "'$ak'",$0}' OFS="\t" $file
n=$((n+1))
unset ak
done

I am getting following error

awk: line 1: runaway string constant

is there any solution to read reference file first line print with 1st file(in loop) $0, then read 2nd line from reference file print with 2nd file in loop

2

It's not a good practice to use shell variables directly in awk. Pass the shell variables to awk using -v.

Check this example here(run away string problem)..

Guru.

3

Why is it normally not a good idea to use shell vars in awk? Is it because of the single quotes hiding the variable? Or some other reason?

4

Its mainly because of the quoting issues present in a shell variable. Refer this link for more: Using Shell Variables - The GNU Awk User's Guide

Guru.

5

Thanks.

6 
awk 'NR=='"$n"' { print  }' filename
7

Hi,

Can you please help me to find/display out last Friday's date of the month using awk command in Unix/Linux.

i have found this command and its work

cal 03 2013 | awk 'NF>5{last = $6} END{print last}'

But it show the output in single digit like :29

But i need the output will shown in this format (Fri Mar 29 2013)

Please help.

8

avig,

Start your own thread for your help requests. Do not hijack another's thread. It is rude, inconsiderate, and creates confusion in the conversation.

I urge members to not reward this or other thread hijacks with helpful responses.

Regards,
Alister