AWK include empty/null entries in delimited text file

Question

I have tried batch 'for loops', and Linux AWK. Both seem to have the same issue, where they ignore empty entries in a tab delimited file. I try to print the 32nd column, but because some previous entries have nothing between two tabs, it creates problems.

Is there a workaround for this? Or any other language you recommend for this?

Col1            Col3    Col4
Col1    Col2    Col3    Col4

For some reason, the tabs are showing as spaces, but imaging there are 2 tabs between Column 1 and 3 on the first row. Everything else is 1 tab. Try to print column 3 — thisisnice05
you wrote print the 32nd column, post the actual few lines containing all columns and expected result for those lines — RomanPerekhrest

Renaud Pacalet Renaud Pacalet · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-22T07:04:32

Tell awk that your field separator is a tab using the -F option. Example to print the third column with your example:

$ cat foo.txt
Col1            Col3    Col4
Col1    Col2    Col3    Col4
$ awk -F '      ' '{print $3}' foo.txt
Col3
Col3

AWK include empty/null entries in delimited text file

1 Answers