Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi, I have files, with fixed length fields/let's say every field 5 positions/, like this:

Code:

xxxx 140  xxxxx
xxxx 140  xxxxx
xxxx 1400 xxxxx
xxxx 150  xxxxx

I need to get only the records, which have 140 in the second column. I use that command:

Code:

nawk '{if (substr($0,6,3)=="140") print $0}' input_files >> ooutput_file;

But that also return me the rows that contain 1400.
Any idea how to fix that?

Thanks!

You don't need to use substrings, awk can handle columns all on its own.

Code:

awk '$2 == "140"' inputfile

Well, if your file does actually consist of fixed length fields, then the length of the substring extracted and the length of the string literal used for comparison should both be equal to the length of the field.

If, however, your file does not consist of fixed fields, and is instead delimited by whitespace or some other field separator, then Corona has already given you the correct solution.

Regards,
Alister

Thanks Corona688, it works perfect!