Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi I am trying to run this command in ksh ...its not working

$line="123356572867116w1671716"
actual_length = 16
cut_line=`awk 'BEGIN{print substr(ARGV[1],1,actual_length)}' "$line"`
the substr is not giving me an output

how can i make it done
can anyone hwlp me on this

cut_line=`awk 'BEGIN{print substr(ARGV[1],1,16)}' "$line"`

This is working ...But I want variable to be passed instead of numeric
please guide me

Thanks,

Code:

$line="123356572867116w1671716"
cut_line=`awk -v v=${#line} 'BEGIN{print substr(ARGV[1],1,v)}' "$line"`

If your shell supports this type of expansion (and ksh 93 should):

Code:

line="123356572867116w1671716"
actual_length = 16
cut_line=${line:0:$actual_length}