Editing printf

== Usage == === printf [ FORMAT, LIST ] === The **printf** [[variadic]] function provides generic [[string formatting]] facilities. This enables output of formatted strings to a [[filehandle]] or to [[standard output]] in a similar manner to the printf function used in the C programming language. The printf function uses the same string formatting functions as [[sprintf]], but printf does not automatically append an [[output record separator]] or [[newline]] character to its output. The printf function provides support for the complete set of ANSI C format specifications together with the %c, %d, %e, %E, %f, %g, %G, %i, %o, %s, %u, %x, %X and %% [[conversion specifier]]s, and the h and l [[conversion qualifier]]s. The argument list to printf can optionally be enclosed in [[parentheses]]. === Example Usage === Print all the words on each line: {{{ awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;++i) printf "%s ", $i;print ""}' filename }}} Do NOT print the first word on each line: {{{ awk '{for(i=2;i<=NF;++i) printf "%s ", $i;print ""}' filename }}} Print 3rd to 5th words in each line: {{{ awk -v start=3 -v end=5 '{ for(i=start;i<=end;i++) printf "%s ", $i;print "" }' filename }}} Print the first to the eighth word on each line: {{{ awk '{ i=0; while(++i<8) printf("%s ", $i); print $i }' filename }}} Delete all newline characters in a file: {{{ awk '{printf "%s ",$O}' filename }}} Print entire file as an array: {{{ awk '{delete a;}{for(i=1;i<=NF;++i) a[i]=$i} { for (j in a) printf("%s ",a[j]); print ""}' filename }}} Remember to always use a proper format string with printf, otherwise you can have some surprises, especially where you are printing arbitrary strings with unknown content: {{{ echo "foo%d%sbar" | awk '{printf $0}' # error! echo "foo%d%sbar" | awk '{printf "%s", $0}' # works }}}

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