replacing blank lines

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi i am trying to replace blank lines with a number 0. I tried the following code
awk '{print NF ? $0: blankrow}' blankrow = "0" file1.prg>file2.prg
however i get the following error: fatal: cannot open file `blankrow' for reading (No such file or directory)
file example:
1
2
3

5

6
file output>
1
2
3
0
5
0
6

  • thank u
    PS i have also tried using echo "file.prg" |sed's!\" "!\"0"!g' -> results with an error -seds!\" "!\"0"!g: command not found
2

Remove the spaces around the = sign:

awk '{print NF?$0:blankrow}' blankrow=0 file1.prg>file2.prg
3

tried that.. didnt work
bash: awk{print NF?$1:blankrow}blankrow=0: command not found

4

And why don't you just copy/paste the command above ...
I'm sure you see that the command you run is different.

5

lol.. thanks.. worked fine... thanks.. wonders of pasting..

6

had another concern
in the output file.. if i had to add another field with just tab (blank space every line) would
i just say awk '{print NF?$0:blankrow}' blankrow=0; print " "
or awk '{print NF?$0:blankrow}' blankrow=0; print $0 "\t"
output file example:
1 (tab)
2 (tab)
0 (tab)
3 (tab)
4 (tab)
0 (tab)

7 
 awk '$0=($0?$0:0)"\t"' infile
8

i merged another code with the previous code u gave -
{print NF?$0:blankrow}blankrow=0{print NR $0 "\t"}
i do get the tabs.. but is it possible to make the tabs like a seperate field?

9

No need to merge, just use this:

 awk '$0=($0?$0:0)" \t"' infile
10

the tabs are not alliged properly to make it a seperate field

output:
1(tab)
2(tab)
10(tab)

desired output:
1 (tab)
2 (tab)
3 (tab)
10 (tab)

11

Could post the output from the following command:

awk '$0=($0?$0:0)" \t"' infile|cat -te

I get this:

% awk '$0=($0?$0:0)" \t"' infile|cat -te
1 ^I$
2 ^I$
3 ^I$
0 ^I$
5 ^I$
0 ^I$
6 ^I$

digit -> space -> tab

Is this the desired result?

May be this illustrates it better:

% awk '$0=($0?$0:0)" \t"' infile|od -cbw4  
0000000   1      \t  \n
        061 040 011 012
0000004   2      \t  \n
        062 040 011 012
0000010   3      \t  \n
        063 040 011 012
0000014   0      \t  \n
        060 040 011 012
0000020   5      \t  \n
        065 040 011 012
0000024   0      \t  \n
        060 040 011 012
0000030   6      \t  \n
        066 040 011 012
0000034
12

Or perhaps you want something like this?
(adjust the length if you need: -10, -15, -20 ...)

awk '$0=sprintf("%-15s",$0?$0:0)' infile