awk – split string using a delimiter

 

Using awk we can split a string with delimiter/string.

Examples:

Character as delimiter:

Using “:” as a delimiter for below example

$ echo "abc:def" | awk -F':' '{print $1}'

Output:

abc

$ echo "abc:def" | awk -F':' '{print "field1: "$1 "\nfield2: "$2}' 

Output:

field1: abc
field2: def

String as delimiter:

Using “bc” as delimiter for below example

$echo "abc:def" | awk -F'bc' '{print "field1: "$1 "\nfield2: "$2}' 

Output:

field1: a
field2: :def

To print number of fields:

To print number of fields use NF variable.

$ echo "abc:def" | awk -F'bc' '{print NF}'

Output: 

2

-Sany