Getting substring using ksh script

Question

I'm using ksh script to determine what the delimiter in a file is using awk. I know this delimiter will always be in the 4 position on the first line. The issue I'm having is that the character being used as in a delimiter in a particular file is a * and so instead of returning * in the variable the script is returning a file list. Here is sample text in my file along with my script:

text in file:

XXX*XX*     *XX*XXXXXXX.......

here is my kind of what my script looks like (I don't have the script in front of me but you get the jist):

delimiter=$(awk '{substr $0, 4, 1}' file.txt)
echo ${delimiter} # lists files in directory..file.txt file1.txt file2.txt instead of * which is the desired result

Thank you in advance,
Anthony

blackSmith · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-24 11:30:52Z

1

Birei is right about your problem. But your AWK expression doesn't seem to be interested in the 1st line only. You can replace it with :

'NR==1 {print substr($0, 4, 1)}'

Then you can do a simple:

echo "$delimiter"

answered Jul 24, 2013 at 11:30

blackSmith

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Birei · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-24 07:47:25Z

0

The shell is interpreting the content of the delimiter variable. You need to quote it to avoid this behaviour:

echo "${delimiter}"

It will print *

answered Jul 24, 2013 at 7:47

Birei

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1 Comment

user1015196 Over a year ago

I just figured that out this morning and was going to edit my posting....thanks for you response!

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