field separator in awk script

Question

I am trying to print columns in file which are seperated by | using awk.

File content:

 postgres  | psql                   |               | 2018-09-17 05:00:45.096491+00 |            | active
 test_user | PostgreSQL JDBC Driver | ***.**.**.118 | 2018-09-17 03:55:22.310569+00 |            | idle in transaction
 test_user | PostgreSQL JDBC Driver | ***.**.**.95  | 2018-09-17 03:54:58.638521+00 |            | idle in transaction

I am using below awk command to separate columns in file.

 awk 'BEGIN { RS = "|" } ; { print $2 }' vv.txt

Also refer to image attached which gives clear idea about issue. I am not sure why data is getting messed up? Is it also considering space as separator?

https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html#User_002dmodified `RS` is the record separator, not field separator. — melpomene, Sep 17 '18 at 05:38
ok whatever you call it separated by "|", how can i print value which is separated by "|" as column — Nomad, Sep 17 '18 at 05:42
That is what my link was for. It goes to the awk documentation. You can search for "field separator". And read it. — melpomene, Sep 17 '18 at 05:56
Possible duplicate of [How to use ":" as awk field separator?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2609552/how-to-use-as-awk-field-separator) — kvantour, Sep 17 '18 at 08:59

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '18 at 08:43

1

Problem:

As was explained in the comments, you modified the record separator instead of the field separator.

Solution:

awk -F'|' '{ print $2 }' vv.txt

Output:

psql
PostgreSQL JDBC Driver
PostgreSQL JDBC Driver

answered Sep 17 '18 at 08:43

simlev

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field separator in awk script

1 Answers1