Awk array syntax error

Question

I am trying to use awk as some types of element counter as follows, but I got syntax error.

cat file | awk '{if($2>$3)A[$1]++}END{for(index in A){print index, A[index]}}'

Can someone help?

Here is the syntax error:

awk: {if($2>$3)A[$1]++}END{for(index in A){print index, A[index]}}
awk:                                 ^ syntax error
awk: {if($2>$3)A[$1]++}END{for(index in A){print index, A[index]}}
awk:                                                  ^ syntax error
awk: {if($2>$3)A[$1]++}END{for(index in A){print index, A[index]}}
awk:                                                           ^ syntax error

Thanks you very much!

Kevin · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-23 18:55:49Z

3

It appears that index is a reserved word. Change it to something else. Perhaps key.

answered Jan 23, 2012 at 18:55

Kevin

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

1

Good Practices:

As Kevin pointed out, index is a reserved word. Try using a different key for your array subscripts.
Useless use of cat. awk can take filename as an input. Do something like this -

awk '{if($2>$3)A[$1]++}END{for(i in A){print i, A[i]}}' file
If $2>$3 is the only condition then you can shorten it to something like following -

awk '$2>$3{A[$1]++}END{for(i in A){print i, A[i]}}' file

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Jan 23, 2012 at 19:14

jaypal singh

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