record separator

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

can anyone tell me any way to change record separator (default is new line).
RS in nawk as not working.
Thanks in advance.

Regards
Rochit

2

could you define 'not working', pls?
An example might be helpful.

P.S. The 'out-of-the-box' awk's can only define RS as single characters - no regex for RS.

3

my in put file is:

<CRM:MS=23746,............................;
<EN:MS=23746..........................;
................................................;
<CRM:5766,..............;
<OP:.................................;

my input file looks like this. in place of dots there are some more parameters.
what i want is that the record separator new line (currently ) is replaced. i want the script to accept <CRM: as new field separatori.e my output file should look like:

<CRM:MS=23746,............................;<EN:MS=23746..........................;................................................;
<CRM:5766,..............;<OP:.................................;

it will be very nice of you if you can help.

Regards
Rochit

4

use 'gawk' if you can:

#
# set the RecordSeparator to '<CRM:'
#
# for the FIRST line - reevaluate the record equal to itself
# for any OTHER line - reevaluate the record appending the RecordSeparator
# to the beginning of the record.
#
# after the reevaluattion is done - PRINT the record. 'PRINT' is implicit as a
# result of the record re-evaluation.
#
gawk -v RS='<CRM:' '$1=(FNR==1) ? $1 : RS $1' myFile

or with any other awk without using an RS:

# for the FIRST line/record - print it out (withOUT a new line) and o to the next line
FNR==1 { printf ;next }
#
# for any OTHER (other than the first) line/record:
# if the line/record starts with '<CRM:' - print the new line '\n' followed by
# a line itself.
# if the line/record does NOT start with '<CRM:' - print the line withOUT
# a new line '\n'
{printf (/^<CRM:/) ? "\n" $0 : $0}

# print new line '\n' after the LAST line processed
END { printf "\n" }
5

please could you explain the working of both the codes.

Regards
Rochit

6

see above.

7

thanks alot.

Code looks fine. i'll try it and come back to you tommorrow.
thanks for the explanation too.

8

Thanks alot
for the time being code is working perfectly

Regards
Rochit