For a reason not worth mentioning here, I would like to write a somewhat more complex awk script in which I would have to explain in detail what I am doing. (If only so that I’ll still know next week.) There doesn’t seem to be a way to wrap a list of conditions in GNU awk, right?

This is what I tried:

command-that-prints-a-table | awk '
    NR>1 &&                # Skip line 1
    NF>2 &&                # Skip lines with only one column
    substr($1,1,1) != "("  # Skip lines that start with a "("
    { print $1 }
'

Alas, that does not work - awk skips the conditions entirely and only runs print $1. It seems that escaping the newlines does not work either, which makes sense as the end of the lines are comments.

This would work:

command-that-prints-a-table | awk '
# - Skip line 1
# - Skip lines with only one column
# - Skip lines that start with a "("
    NR>1 && NF>2 && substr($1,1,1) != "("  { print $1 }
'

But - my original code has a few more conditions - it is rather annoying to read and maintain. Is there an elegant way to fix this?

  • rhabarba@feddit.orgOP
    1·
    2 days ago

    Sure, but that’s inside a string:

    $ printf "This is a   # let's break \
> long line."
This is a   # let's break long line.

    awk remains unimpressed:

    $ echo "This is a test.
> It has three lines, so I can
> test awk on it." | awk '
> NR>2    # Skip two lines. \
> { print $2 }   # should only print "awk"
> '
is
has
test awk on it.
awk
    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 days ago

      It works with long commands as well. Thinking in awk though, I would only use it after a statement is complete. You wouldn’t be able to split up expressions like this, but if you’re just talking about making it more readable, it should work.

      Backslash works for long commands as well, but it’s not going to split up an expression or string properly.

      Works: apt install package1 \ package2 \ package3

      Won’t work: apt install pack\ age1 package2 pack\ age3

      You can get cleaner code by substituting content blocks as variables, or piping EOF in and out at various places as other options.

      • rhabarba@feddit.orgOP
        1·
        2 days ago

        You wouldn’t be able to split up expressions like this

        Ah, that already answers my original question. A pity!

          • rhabarba@feddit.orgOP
            3·
            2 days ago

            Ah, I could probably use Perl or something as well. I was hoping awk could do it though. But thank you, I hadn’t heard about pyp before!