Originally Posted by 10000springs

Good morning all. I have been running into a problem running a simple gawk script that selects every third line from an input file and writes it to an output file.

Code:

gawk "NR%3==0" FileIn > FileOut

I am attempting to run this command from a batch file at the command line. I have several hundred files to perform this operation on and it would sure be handy to be able to just work up a quick batch file and let it fly.

The script works fine from the command line. Very slow though since I must do one file at a time and change the file name between each run. Tedious to say the least and I have been up all night now.

The problem that I am having appears to be related to the %3 qualifier in the script. When run from a batch file I do not get an error message. I get an empty file and the screen output at the command line shows the code interpreted as

Code:

gawk "NR==0" FileIn > FileOut

I have tried backslashing the %, enclosing it in double-quotes, enclosing each character in double-quotes, double-quotes and double backslashes, etc. All the combinations that my tired mind could conjure. No joy.

I am beginning to think that gawk will not pass this particular character to the command line from a Windows batch file. I have looked around various forums, read the books that I have, and can find nothing to guide me.

I would be thrilled if someone had a solution to the problem of grabbing every third line from a file and dumping to text output. Perl or gawk preferred. Other options will be considered.

Thanks for looking. 10000Springs (BC)