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build a string of asterisks elegantly

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# 8  
Old 02-16-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by fpmurphy
Code:
awk 'BEGIN { while (a++<=50) s=s "x"; print s }'

Just a little fix about it , the above statement would print it 51 times instead of 50 times

Code:
$ awk 'BEGIN { while (a++<=50) s=s "x"; print s }' | fold -w 10
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
x


... so instead, you may want to use:

Code:
awk 'BEGIN { while (a++<50) s=s "x"; print s }'

or
Code:
awk 'BEGIN { while (++a<=50) s=s "x"; print s }'

# 9  
Old 02-16-2012
how can i replace the 50 by a variable?
lazy
# 10  
Old 02-16-2012
Code:
$ count=10
$ awk -v c="$count" 'BEGIN { while (++a<=c) s=s "x"; print s }'
xxxxxxxxxx

Code:
$ count=20
$ awk -v c="$count" 'BEGIN { while (++a<=c) s=s "x"; print s }'
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

# 11  
Old 02-16-2012
hi

thanks all

i will use the following solutions

Code:
st=$(printf '%*s' "$l" ' ' | tr ' ' "*")

st=$(awk -v c="$l" 'BEGIN { while (++a<=c) s=s "x"; print s }')

thanks
lazy
Last edited by methyl; 02-16-2012 at 05:47 PM.. Reason: please use code tags
# 12  
Old 02-16-2012
Code:
echo | awk NF=51 OFS=\*

Code:
c=50
echo | awk NF=$c+1 OFS=\*

These 2 Users Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
ctsgnb fpmurphy
# 13  
Old 02-16-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrutinizer
Code:
echo | awk NF=51 OFS=\*

Code:
c=50
echo | awk NF=$c+1 OFS=\*

Intriguing. How does that work? I wasn't aware the number of fields was something you could set.
# 14  
Old 02-16-2012
Quote:
assigning to a nonexistent field (for example, $(NF+2)=5) shall increase the value of NF; create any intervening fields with the uninitialized value; and cause the value of $0 to be recomputed, with the fields being separated by the value of OFS. Each field variable shall have a string value or an uninitialized value when created
awk: Variables and Special Variables
It is not strictly assigning to a field but it is increasing NF

You can also use NF to cut of fields:
Code:
echo "this line will never end" | awk NF=4

---------- Post updated at 23:13 ---------- Previous update was at 22:35 ----------

This works too
Code:
echo | awk '$50=OFS="*"'

49 field separators, followed by a 50th field that contains an *
Last edited by Scrutinizer; 02-16-2012 at 05:53 PM..
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
fpmurphy
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