Var in nawk script parse incorrectly

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I'm writing a Texas Hold'em script in bash v3.00.16(1) to learn more about awk/nawk scripts and regex expressions by trying to randomize a list of names using awk's rand function. The problem is that the elements in the var convert to a single element in the nawk script. I've tried several things, including separating the names with commas, single and double quotes but no joy.

The result is that ${Player_Names[0]} contains all the names and ${#Player_Names[@]} = 1.

I started with some code by C. F. Johnson that randomizes a deck of cards and wanted to alter that to randomize a list of player names. I replaced the regex expression {2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,J,Q,K,A}_{Hearts,Spades,Diamonds,Clubs} that generates the deck of cards with a variable that contains a list of names. Note: In my variable there are 124 names.

xNAMES=( Abigail  Alejandro Alex Alton Amos )

get_players() # USAGE: get_players
{ 
Player_Names=$(
printf "%s\n" ${xNAMES[@]} |
  ${uBIN}/nawk '## Seed the random number generator
    BEGIN { 
    srand()
}
## Put a random number in front of each line
{ printf "%.0f\t%s\n", rand() * 99999, $0 }' |
  sort -n | ## Sort the lines numerically
  cut -f2 ## Remove the random numbers
)
# Player_1 is the user.
# Skipping 
Player_2=${xNAMES[2]}
Player_3=${xNAMES[3]}
Player_4=${xNAMES[4]}
Player_5=${xNAMES[5]}
Player_6=${xNAMES[6]}
  }

get_players

${BIN}/printf "\n\t${Player_1}\t${Player_2}\t${Player_3}\t${Player_4}\t${Player_5}\t${Player_6}\n"

What am I doing wrong? Do I have to replace the original regex expression (that works) with the list of names in the nawk script for it to parse correctly?

Thanks

2

You're telling it to put it in a string, so you get a string. To put it in an array, tell it it's an array.

Player_Names=( $(
printf "%s\n" ${sNAMES[@]} |
  ${uBIN}/nawk '## Seed the random number generator
    BEGIN { 
    srand()
}
## Put a random number in front of each line
{ printf "%.0f\t%s\n", rand() * 99999, $0 }' |
  sort -n | ## Sort the lines numerically
  cut -f2 ## Remove the random numbers
) )

You can alter what character the array splits on by altering the shell's IFS variable. You might want IFS=$'\n' to split on newlines only. Be sure to put it back once you're done since it affects other things too.

3

Sorry, I guess I'm missing something. I don't see any difference in what you posted and what I'm doing.

printf "%s\n" ${sNAMES[@]}

## Typo in original post has been fixed. sNames should have been xNames.

By putting parentheses around the names bash recognizes that the contents are an array. I can test this using the following.

$ xNAMES=( Abigail Alejandro Alex Alton Amos )
$ echo ${xNAMES[0]}
Abigail
$ echo ${xNAMES[1]}
Alejandro
$ echo ${xNAMES[2]}
Alex
$ echo ${xNAMES[3]}
Alton
$ echo ${#xNAMES[@]}
5

My problem is that the following happens when using the awk script.

xNAMES=( Abigail Alejandro Alex Alton Amos )
$ echo ${xNAMES[0]}
Abigail Alejandro Alex Alton Amos
$ echo ${xNAMES[1]}
$
$ echo ${xNAMES[2]}
$ echo ${#xNAMES[@]}
1
$

Please let me know if I missed something.

Thanks

4

Look closer. I even highlighted the differences in red.

5

Thanks for pointing that out. That did fix the problem.