How do I repeat the format specification for a printf line, i.e. I'd
rather write:

printf {"5%s","a","b","c","d","e"}

than:

printf {"%s%s%s%s%s","a","b","c","d","e"}

Hopefully you see what I'm trying to do in the first statement, but
obviously it gives me 5a5b5c5d5e since this isn't the proper shortcut.
Thanks.

Ben

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Ben wrote:
> How do I repeat the format specification for a printf line, i.e. I'd
> rather write:
>
> than:
>
> printf {"%s%s%s%s%s","a","b","c","d","e"}
>

I suppose I should clarify that the problem would be better stated as
wanting to do (note the \n):

printf {"5%s\n",a,b,c,d,e}

but still have a, b, etc. on the same line. Based on my previous post an
acceptable response would have been simply

printf {"%s",a,b,c,d,e}

Thanks again.

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Ben wrote:
> Ben wrote:
> 
>
> I suppose I should clarify that the problem would be better stated as
> wanting to do (note the \n):
>
> printf {"5%s\n",a,b,c,d,e}
>
> but still have a, b, etc. on the same line. Based on my previous post an
> acceptable response would have been simply
>
> printf {"%s",a,b,c,d,e}
>
> Thanks again.

In the subject you write "awk (or C) question", but I don't recognize
this as an awk or C syntax.

Using ksh93 both of these statements

printf {"%s\n",a,b,c,d,e}

printf "%s\n" a b c d e

(using the shell built-in printf) produce the output

a
b
c
d
e


Janis

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Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> I don't recognize
> this as an awk or C syntax.
>

echo "dummy" | awk '{printf ( "%s\n","hi")}'

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On 2006-03-15, Ben wrote:
> How do I repeat the format specification for a printf line, i.e. I'd
> rather write:
>
> printf {"5%s","a","b","c","d","e"}
>
> than:
>
> printf {"%s%s%s%s%s","a","b","c","d","e"}
>
> Hopefully you see what I'm trying to do in the first statement, but
> obviously it gives me 5a5b5c5d5e since this isn't the proper shortcut.

It wouldn't give you that in awk or C; it would in the shell,
whether you use a shell built-in or the external command.

In the shell, you probably want, (but you didn't specify exactly
what you want):

printf "%s" "a" "b" "c" "d" "e"

In awk (or C):

{ printf( "%s%s%s%s%s","a","b","c","d","e" ); }


--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author   |    <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes:     |  My code in this post, if any,
A Problem-Solution Approach  |          is released under the
2005, Apress                 |     GNU General Public Licence

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Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
>
>     It wouldn't give you that in awk or C; it would in the shell,
>     whether you use a shell built-in or the external command.

Your right. I'm not truly in awk, using awk in a shell.

>
>     In the shell, you probably want, (but you didn't specify exactly
>     what you want):

Yeah, I noticed this and replied to my own message on a different branch
of this thread. What I really want is something (in a shell) like

printf "%s\n" a b c

but get output of

abc

instead of

a
b
c

Sorry for the poorly posed question.

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Ben wrote:
> Janis Papanagnou wrote:
> 
>
> echo "dummy" | awk '{printf ( "%s\n","hi")}'

you're right. This isn't awk syntax, it's shell use of awk. I got
confused for a minute but Chris Johnson (other branch of this thread)
straightened me out.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 14:24:10 -0500, Ben <none@none.com> wrote:

>Ben wrote: 
>
>I suppose I should clarify that the problem would be better stated as
>wanting to do (note the \n):
>
>printf {"5%s\n",a,b,c,d,e}
>
>but still have a, b, etc. on the same line. Based on my previous post an
>acceptable response would have been simply
>
>printf {"%s",a,b,c,d,e}

Hi Ben,

What's the problem with simply typing it out ??

If it is just a question of generating this source code (and nothing to do
with run time) the natural solution is to use a macro. Unfortunately 'awk'
doesn;t have them and as far as I know C macros are not powerful enough.

If you were generating these printfs() from data (the only application
I can think of for the function you requested) then the generator program
itself would write this code and would therefore know how many %s's
and what not to produce for the format arguments... but that would
show how even without MACROs in the target language you would do this
in general - ie; put unexpanded source into a file (with its own
extension ) then run your macro expanding program on it to produce
the proper C/awk statements. This would work for either C or awk
and there are already professional tools which you can use for this
without having to write your own, mmmm .... maybe something like
'm4' I think is what you use for this ( "man m4" )

Otherwise what you can do (will make runtime operation a little less
efficient) is to write a repeatstring function and use that in the
format argument, eg in 'awk';

function repstr(n,s){
for(q="";n--;) q=q""s
return q
}

BEGIN{
printf(repstr(5,"%s\n"),1,2,3,4,5)
}

bestwishesfrom
laura



>
>Thanks again.

--
echo moc.12klat@daehriaf_arual|sed 's/\(.\)\(.\),*/\2,\1/g;h;s/,//g;/@t/q;G;
D'

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On 2006-03-15, Ben wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote: 
>
> Your right. I'm not truly in awk, using awk in a shell.
> 
>
> Yeah, I noticed this and replied to my own message on a different branch
> of this thread. What I really want is something (in a shell) like
>
> printf "%s\n" a b c
>
> but get output of
>
> abc
>
> instead of
>
> a
> b
> c

printf "%b" a b c d e '\n'

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author   |    <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
Shell Scripting Recipes:     |  My code in this post, if any,
A Problem-Solution Approach  |          is released under the
2005, Apress                 |     GNU General Public Licence

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Ben wrote:
> Ben wrote:
> 
>
>
> you're right. This isn't awk syntax, it's shell use of awk.

No, *this* (the above) *is* awk syntax. You had posted a different thing.

> I got
> confused for a minute but Chris Johnson (other branch of this thread)
> straightened me out.

You got your solutions, I guess...

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