Re: [bug-gawk] FIELDWIDTHS extension request

[arnold]

Is this request based on a theoretical discussion, or is someone
actually using FIELDWIDTHS do real work?

Thanks,

Arnold

Ed Morton <address@hidden> wrote:

> Could we get an extension for FIELDWIDTHS such that a "*" (or some other 
> indicator) means "everything else"? It's very common to have to deal with 
> files 
> like:
>
>      foo  bar    stuff
>      bill johnny other stuff of some different length
>
> where it's easy to see the length of the first 2 fields but the length of the 
> final field can't be determined based on any sample so we end up writing code 
> like:
>
>      FIELDWIDTHS = "5 7 9999"
>
> and pick some arbitrary number that we hope will be big enough to hold 
> whatever 
> appears in that 3rd field. It would be clearer and more robust if we could 
> instead write:
>
>      FIELDWIDTHS = "5 7 *"
>
> or similar.
>
> We've been having a discussion about the applicability of this at 
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.awk/uip6-Ll9Lj0 in case 
> some 
> more background is useful.
>
> Regards,
>
>      Ed.