UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Guru's

I've a variable "COUNT", which has the total number of records.
I need to print the contents of COUNT in 8 digit form to a file.

If count is 1, I need to print 00000001
If count is 23, I need to print 00000023 same way
if count is 77898, I need to print 00077898.

the requirement is to appent zero's infront of exact values of COUNT.

How to do this? Is some loop is required?
Help me.../ Ganapati

Code:

echo $COUNT  | awk '{printf("%08d",$1)}'

will print 8 char field left padded with zeroes

You don't need awk, printf is sufficient ...

doh - true...nice catch

e.g.

# printf "%08d" 123

:-)