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awk ignores fields with only spaces or empty

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# 1  
Old 06-09-2010
awk ignores fields with only spaces or empty
Hi,

Does any one know how to avoid the scenario where awk ignores the fields having only spaces or empty fields?

for instance,

Code:
Data: "a","b","c","d","","   "

code:
awk -F, '{ print NF }' File

the output I get is 4 instead of 6 do you know how to avoid this?
# 2  
Old 06-09-2010
Code:
# cat file
Data: "a","b","c","d","","   "
# awk -F, '{ print NF }' file
6

# 3  
Old 06-09-2010
still doesnt work. I am working on AIX
# 4  
Old 06-09-2010
Its working for me in AIX v6

Code:
$ echo '"a","b","c","d","","   "' | awk -F, '{ print NF }'
6

Which version are you using?
# 5  
Old 06-09-2010
its version 5. not sure why it is misbehaving.
# 6  
Old 06-09-2010
Could find number of fields differently
Code:
cat file | tr "," "\n" | wc -l

# 7  
Old 06-10-2010
Sorry - I realized later that the empty fields are just nulls.
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