awk computed variable names


 
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# 1  
Old 02-04-2008
awk computed variable names

Is there a way to do make-style computed variable names in awk? e.g. in make
Code:
foo = bar
bar = wocket

I can get "wocket" with
Code:
$($(foo))

Alternatively can you list all defined variables in awk?

thanks
# 2  
Old 02-04-2008
Maybe this helps:
Code:
> foo=var
> awk 'BEGIN{var="wocket";print '${foo}'}'
wocket

# 3  
Old 02-04-2008
The following code snippet outputs "wooket"

Code:
#!/usr/bin/awk -f

BEGIN {
    bar="wooket";
    foo=bar;
}

END { print foo }

# 4  
Old 02-05-2008
Thanks for the reply, but that's not exactly what I'm after. That just assigns "wocket" to bar, copies the value of that to foo, then prints the value of foo.

I was wondering if it's possible to say (as in a makefile)....
- assign the string "bar" to the variable foo.
- assign some string value to the variable bar.
- retrieve the value of a variable (in this case bar), where the name of the variable to retrieve from is specified in another variable (in this case foo).

So writing $($(foo)) accesses the value of a variable whose name is stored in foo.

Klashxx's one is closer to what I need, but it doesn't work if i move the foo=var from the shell into the awk script.

I guess this can't be done in awk. I'll workaround it a different way.
Thanks
# 5  
Old 02-05-2008
there's no 'eval' in awk: FYI

Last edited by vgersh99; 02-05-2008 at 02:04 PM..
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