multidimensional array in awk traversal

Question

I am planning to use a multidimensional array in awk and I am storing the details in the format as below

CODE

arr[customer1,account1]
arr[customer1,account2]
arr[customer2,account1]
arr[customer2,account2]

DETAILS

I just need to know, how would I be able to traverse this and print the results. Also I am using this awk inside a shell script program so I would like to know will I be able to use the same array inside the shell script, if so how to transfer this. I searched in many sites, I am not able to find a correct solution for this. Could you ppl plz help me. Thank you.

An array can't be transferred from AWK to the shell. You can print the values from the AWK script and read them into an array in the shell (such as Bash, which supports arrays). Note that Bash doesn't support multidimensional arrays without ugly hacks and that before version 4 it doesn't support associative arrays. Or you can write the whole script in AWK and have complete access to the arrays. — Dennis Williamson
– Dennis Williamson, Commented Jun 24, 2012 at 13:50

Birei · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-24 10:50:56Z

1

Keys from multidimensional arrays are separated with the value of SUBSEP variable, use it to split them. Traverse the array like this:

for ( key in arr ) {
    split( key, values, SUBSEP )
    ## values[1] -> First value of the multidimensional array.
    ## values[2] -> Second value of the multidimensional array.
}

answered Jun 24, 2012 at 10:50

Birei

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6 Comments

User Over a year ago

Thank you for your answer. In mycase I dint change my subsep hence I assume it to be space . I am using like the below awk '{FS = "=";if ($1 ~ /Hi/) {customer=$2;} else if ($1 ~ /bye/) {split($2,g,"[\"]");h[customer, g[2]]++;} END {for (key in arr){ split(key,values," ") print values[1],values[2],h[values[1],values[2]]}}... But I am getting an error in this ..

Birei Over a year ago

@User: I can't see your error but SUBSEP is not a space by default. It is \034, an uncommon and not visible char.

User Over a year ago

So can I replace space with \034. And is my approach of printing the value correct ...

User Over a year ago

Actually I am not getting the value of third parameter I mean h[values[1],values[2]] which is the count ...Any suggestions pls

Dennis Williamson Over a year ago

@User: Don't use \034 literally, use the variable SUBSEP.

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