UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

$1 is the argument the the script...not some stuff read from standard input. Move the backtick date expression into the awk statement wher you need it.

I get no result this way.

Code:

> awk -v f1=`date +'%d0454'` '/^f1/ {getline; print $0}' test.txt
*DEV1-/home/oracle
>

the only way so far that I could figure out how to do it was
to echo the statement as I want it into a file and then
run the file as a shell script.

I am sure I am missing some elementary syntax here but examples
I have found are not helping

The syntax is tricky. You can't use a variable within "//". So to match lines beginning with f1 use...

Code:

awk -v f1=`date +'%d0454'` '$0~"^" f1 {getline; print $0}' test.txt

Note: to match lines where f1 matches the first field the syntax is simpler...

Code:

awk -v f1=`date +'%d0454'` '$1==f1 {getline; print $0}' test.txt

How about just
awk '/^'`date +'%d0454'`'/ {getline; print $0}' test.txt'

Ygor: 3
Perderabo: 1
Duck: -5

Ygor wins! Both lines work very well.
I swear I tried almost everything.

Why did I think $1==f1 should be in parens? ($1==f1)
I think I read that somewhere ...

what if I just want to match any 1st column that begins with
`date +'%d04'`?

Perderabo - thanks for the help. your last line hangs inside awk.
Possibly too many single quotes?

answered my own question:

Code:

awk -v f1=`date +'%d04'` '$1~f1 {getline; print $0}' test.txt

thanks for all the patience and help!