awk syntax error - Shell Programming and Scripting

yongho · #1 06-17-2005

Code:

mVar=0

count=`awk -F, '( ( $2 ~ /^GIVEUP$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ ) || ( $2 ~ /^SPLIT$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ ) || ( $2 ~ /^OPTION$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ ) || ( $2 ~ /^OPTIONSPLIT$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ ) ) { count++ } END { print count }' myCSV.csv
    myVar=`expr $myVar + $count`

Can I do this? I get a syntax error.
It works if I remove the 2nd two pairs of "or" operators.

bakunin · #2 06-17-2005

I didn't find the patience to count all the different types of brackets (I presume a miscount of them is causing the error), but even if the statement would work it would be pretty bad style (read: nearly unreadable for anybody else) so take the malfunction as a stroke of luck.

It is far easier to read to do something (only the skeleton) like:

Code:

BEGIN {
    count=0;
}

{
if( $2 ~ /^GIVEUP$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ )
     count ++;

if( $2 ~ /^SPLIT$/ && $3 ~ /^NEW$/ )
     count ++;

if( ....

}
END {
     print count;
}

This would make clear at first glance what you are doing. The times of "if it was hard to write it should be hard to read (and even harder to understand)" are over by now.

bakunin

zazzybob · #3 06-18-2005

The OP's obfuscated code works fine for me (GNU awk).... my hunch is the omission of the closing backtick.....

Cheers
ZB

Ygor · #4 06-19-2005

Code can be simplified...

Code:

count=$(awk -F, '$2 ~ /^(GIVEUP|SPLIT|OPTION|OPTIONSPLIT)$/ && $3 == "NEW" { count++ } 
                 END { print count }' myCSV.csv)

yongho · #5 06-20-2005

ah, thanks guys.
i'm always interested in writing better, easier to understand code, and this post definitely helped out in that department

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