Awk command with word as delimitor

Carolina Carpenter

12/27/22, 12:14 AM

How to I use awk to cut based on a word that keeps everything after it : Example:

File.txt > 
XXXXWORDNNNNNN
XXXWORDNNNNNNN
XXWORDNNNNNNNN
XWORDNNNNNNNNN
WORDNNNNNNNNNN

output desired:

File.txt >
NNNNNN
NNNNNNN
NNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNN

1 + 0

command-line

awk

text-processing

Score:2

Ubuntu

mondotofu

12/27/22, 12:32 AM

cat File.txt | awk -F"WORD" '{ print $2 }'

The -F parameter usually searches for a single character as a delimiter, but since you wanted to use a string of letters as your delimiter, it must be put in double quotes.

The $2 means all the text following "WORD" ... unless "WORD" reoccurs in the line of text. If that happens then you'll only see the text in between the first and second occurrence of "WORD".

I hope this helps.

0 + 2

steeldriver

12/27/22, 12:51 AM

+1 although quotes are not actually required just because the delimiter is multi-character - they're only necessary if it contains characters that are special to the shell (which `WORD` doesn't). The more significant difference is that a multi-character FS value is interpreted as a *regular expression* (although again `WORD` doesn't contain any regex special characters). Also you have a [uuoc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_%28Unix%29#Useless_use_of_cat). So it could be simplified to `awk -F WORD '{print $2}' File.txt`

mondotofu

12/31/22, 12:47 AM

Thanks @steeldriver. I hadn't known there was a term for uuoc. I sometimes use cat when I am trying out an idea for readability sake or transmitting stdout through a sequence of pipes. I could have used *<File.txt awk -F WORD '{print $2}'* but I have clobbered too many files this way.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Awk command with word as delimitor

TH: คำสั่ง awk ที่มีคำเป็นตัวคั่น

RO: Comanda Awk cu cuvânt ca delimitator

RU: Команда Awk со словом в качестве разделителя

VI: Lệnh awk với Word là dấu phân cách

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