7.14. Odds and Ends

Some data (e.g., that read in from tape or from a spreadsheet) may not have obvious field separators but may instead have fixed-width columns. To preprocess this type of data, the substr function is useful.

7.14.1. Fixed Fields

In the following example, the fields are of a fixed width, but are not separated by a field separator. The substr function is used to create fields.

Example 7.81. 
% cat fixed
						031291ax5633(408)987–0124
						021589bg2435(415)866–1345
						122490de1237(916)933–1234
						010187ax3458(408)264–2546
						092491bd9923(415)134–8900
						112990bg4567(803)234–1456
						070489qr3455(415)899–1426

% nawk '{printf substr($0,1,6)" ";printf substr($0,7,6)" ";\
						print substr($0,13,length)}' fixed
						031291  ax5633  (408)987–0124
						021589 bg2435 (415)866–1345 ...

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