cat test.txt
#this is comment
line 1
line 2
#this is comment at line 3
line4
script:
result=`awk '/^#.*/ { print }' test.txt `
for x in $result
do
echo x
done
expected output:
#this is comment
#this is comment at line 3
getting output:
#this
is
comment
#this
is
comment
at
line
3
but when i execute this command awk '/^#.*/ { print }' test.txt,
i get expected result.
I am putting this in loop because I need to capture each comment one at a time, not all together.
This happens because for x in $result will loop through each word in $result - that's what for is meant to do.
Try this instead:
echo "$result" | while read x; do
echo "$x"
done
read will take one line at a time, which is what you need here.
while read line; ...; done <<< "$result". Using a pipeline puts the while loop in a subshell that may have undesirable side-effects.Your issue is not the awk part, but is the for part. When you do
for x in yes no maybe why not
do
echo x
done
You'll get
yes
no
maybe
why
not
That is, the list that for is looping over is automatically space-delimited.
One fix, I suppose, is to wrap the comments in quotes; then for will treat each quoted comment as a single item. legoscia's fix (using read in a while loop) seems even better to me.
