file "batsmen" contains

Bradman;Australia;52;6996
Gavaskar;India;124;10122
Sobers;West;Indies;93;8032
Border;Australia;109;8075
Miandad;Pakistan;97;7121
Gower;England;94;7023
Boycott;England;108;8114

My awk script contains

awk '{FS=";"}
{len=length($1)};
{printf("%s %d\n"), $1, len}' batsmen

when i run the script i get an output like this

Bradman;Australia;52;6996 25
Gavaskar 8
Sobers 6
Border 6
Miandad 7
Gower 5
Boycott 7

i need the first row as "Bradman 7" but it is not working with this script.

What should i do to rectify this. More over when to use "BEGIN & END"

replies appreciated.

raguram r

Use BEGIN and END when you want some amount of processing to occur before or after any file processing has occurred. The code that is in the BEGIN statement will be executed exactly 1 time, and it will be executed before the file you are processing is opened. Likewise, the code in the END block is executed exactly 1 time and it is executed after all code in the main program has been executed.

Use the BEGIN statement for example to print off a report Header, and use an END statement to print the report footer.

Your code:

awk '{FS=";"}
{len=length($1)};
{printf("%s %d\n"), $1, len}' batsmen

You get a printout of the files contents because Awks default action is to print.

Using BEGIN/END you can change your code as follows:

awk 'BEGIN {FS= ";"} {printf("%s %d\n", $1, length($1) )} END {printf("File Processing Complete\n") }' batsmen

gAwk Manual is a great source for Awk information.