AWK: convert string to a column

Question

I want to convert string (eg: abcdef) to a column

This is what I want.

a
b
c
d
e
f

I know how to covert string to column by using sed

$ echo abcdef | sed 's/[^.]/&\n/g'|sed '$d'

But how to covert it using awk?

Maybe yo can see [this link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19752644/row-to-column-and-column-to-row-using-awk) — Heinz Siahaan, Jun 30 '15 at 09:42

Akshay Hegde · Answer 1 · 2015-07-01T03:47:15.413

3

[akshay@localhost tmp]$ awk -v ORS= 'gsub(/./,"&\n")' <<<"abcdefgh"
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

edited Jul 01 '15 at 03:47

answered Jun 30 '15 at 09:49

Akshay Hegde

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This prints an extra line at the end. – 123 Jun 30 '15 at 11:00
1

Just add `-v ORS=` to avoid adding a trailing newline: `awk -v ORS= 'gsub(/./,"&\n")'`. FYI the posted solutions that rely on setting`FS=""` are gawk-specific while this will work in any awk. – Ed Morton Jun 30 '15 at 16:26

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

2

You can set the field separator to an empty string, so that every character is a different field. Then, loop through them and print:

$ awk -v FS="" '{for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) print $i}' <<< "abcdef"
a
b
c
d
e
f

Which is equivalent to:

awk -F "" '{for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) print $i}' <<< "abcdef"

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

1
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answered Jun 30 '15 at 09:45

fedorqui

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You can also use split, but you need to make sure to control awk's sorting (by default it is unsorted): `awk 'BEGIN {PROCINFO["sorted_in"]="@ind_str_asc"} {split ($0,arr,"");for (i in arr){print arr[i]}}' <<< "abcdefg"` – Apr 08 '16 at 21:39

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 30 '15 at 10:07

Only working with awks internal variables:

echo abcdef | awk 'BEGIN{FS="";OFS="\n"}{$1=$1}1'

It sets the input field separator (FS) to nothing which means that every character is a field. The output field separator (OFS) is set to newline. Notive the $1=$1 is needed to rebuild the record with the new OFS.

AWK: convert string to a column

3 Answers3