Shell Programming and Scripting

Need to compare minus symbol "-" with a column that contains minus on few rows.

the sample script awk I have written is

if ( '$COLUMN2' ~ "\-" ) {}

COLUMN2 is a shell variable. I just need the if condition checking the shell variable within the awk script. Below is the entire awk part of the script in case if my question is not clear.

newline=$(echo | awk '{
case1=0;
case2=0;
case3=0;
case4=0;
if ( '$COLUMN3' == 0 ) {
if ( case1 == 0 ){
if ( '$COLUMN5' > 0 ){
printf("%.0f,",'$COLUMN1')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN2)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN3')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN4)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN5')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN6')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN7')
case1++
printf("%s,","case1")
printf("%d\n",case1)}}
else if ( case4 == 0 ){
if ( '$COLUMN5' == 0 ) {
printf("%.0f,",'$COLUMN1')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN2)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN3')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN4)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN5')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN6')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN7')}
case4++
printf("%s,","case4")
printf("%d\n",case4)}}

else if ( '$COLUMN3' > 0.00 ){
if ( '$COLUMN2' ~ "\-" ){
if ( case3 == 0 ){
if ( '$COLUMN5' == 0 ) {
printf("%.0f,",'$COLUMN1')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN2)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN3')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN4)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN5')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN6')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN7')}
case3++
printf("%s,","case3")
printf("%d\n",case3)}}}
else if ( '$COLUMN3' < 0.00 ) {
if ( '$COLUMN2' ~ \\- ){
if ( case2 == 0 ){
if ( '$COLUMN5' == 0 )
{printf("%.0f,",'$COLUMN1')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN2)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN3')
printf("%c,",$COLUMN4)
printf("%.2f,",'$COLUMN5')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN6')
printf("%s,",'$COLUMN7')}
case2++
printf("%s,","case2")
printf("%d\n",case2) }}}}')

I think your trying to use a shell variable in your awk script. Check the -v option in the awk man page.

I was able to access the shell variable inside in awk. My actual question is how to compare with the symbol like minus "-" or "$" etc


~ "/-/"

or

~ \\-

But none works.

No need to quote the dash (between forward slashes or not). It worked just like this:

Code:

-bash-3.00$ cat text
this is just a - test
-bash-3.00$ awk '{ if ( $5 ~ /-/ ) { print "Dash is #5"; } }' text
Dash is #5
-bash-3.00$

awk: cmd. line:32: if ( - ~ /-/ ){
awk: cmd. line:32: ^ syntax error

I get this error at the line -- if ( '$COLUMN2' == /-/ ){

Code:

bash-2.05$ echo '1,2,3,-,5' | nawk -F, '$4 ~ /-/ {print "dash in 4"}'
dash in 4
bash-2.05$ echo '1,2,3,-,5' | nawk -F, '$4 ~ "-" {print "dash in 4"}'
dash in 4

Work fine either way on Solaris. If on Solaris, try 'nawk' istead of 'awk'.
If not, try quoble-quoting the dash, e.g. "-"

Please let me know a sample code to use a shell variable that contains the value of "-" to use it inside awk script.