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Field Separator in printf (awk)

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# 1  
Old 11-06-2013
Field Separator in printf (awk)
I can not figure out how to set the Output filed separator in awk when using printf.

Example:
Code:
cat file
some data
here_is_more information

Requested output
Code:
some------------data
her_is_more-----information

Here are some that does not work:
Code:
awk '{printf "%-15s %s\n",$1,$2}' OFS="-" file
some            data
here_is_more    information

Code:
awk '{printf "%-15s-%s\n",$1,$2}' file
some           -data
here_is_more   -information

# 2  
Old 11-06-2013
printf doesn't use OFS, just whatever you specify in the format string. You can explicitly supply OFS as a %s argument if you want though:
Code:
awk '{printf "%-15s%s%s\n",$1,OFS,$2}' OFS="-" file

# 3  
Old 11-06-2013
Supplementing CarloM's reply, here is something that can be found in the GNU awk's manual.

Quote:
The difference between printf and print is the format argument. This is an expression whose value is taken as a string; it specifies how to output each of the other arguments.
The print statement separates the fields using the char determined by OFS, whereas, in printf the format is specified as a format string.
# 4  
Old 11-06-2013
@CarloM
This will just print one "-" and not fill the gaps.

Here is one solution that gives me correct output:
Code:
awk '{for (i=1;i<=(15-length($1));i++) s=s "-";printf "%s%s%s\n",$1,s,$2;s=""}' file
some-----------data
here_is_more---information

Last edited by Jotne; 11-06-2013 at 05:07 AM..
# 5  
Old 11-06-2013
In addition to what has already been said, you're not looking for a field separator, you're looking for a field fill character. There are several ways to do this, here are two:
Code:
awk '{printf("%s%s%s\n", $1, substr("---------------", length($1)), $2)}' file
awk '{printf("%16.16s%s\n", $1 "---------------", $2)}' file

Both of these assume that 1 <= length($1) <= 15.

Both produce the output:
Code:
some------------data
here_is_more----information

when given your sample input.
These 2 Users Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
Jotne Subbeh
# 6  
Old 11-06-2013
Hello,

Simply one more approach for same, in spite of OFS used one variable.

Code:
awk -vs1="-------------------" -F" " '{printf"%-15s%s%15s\n",$1,s1,$2}' file_name

output will be as follows.


Code:
ome            -------------------           data
here_is_more   -------------------    information



Thanks,
R. Singh
# 7  
Old 11-06-2013
@RavinderSingh13 I do not want the blank spaces.
@Don Cargun Thanks for explication and for the good solution

Here is another way
Code:
awk '{v=sprintf("%-15s%s",$1,$2);gsub(/ /,"-",v);print v}' t
some-----------data
here_is_more---information
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