sh parameters in awk

[Patrick Hyland]

>   fdelim="c "
>   awk '
>      BEGIN {
>         bd = "d "
>         fdelim = "'${fdelim}'"
>      }
>   ' hl_l1

When fdelim is "c ", after parameter substitution has been done on the
awk command, awk has three arguments (the space in "c " acts as a field
delimiter). The first of these arguments is:

   'BEGIN {
      bd = "d "
      fdelim = "c'

and awk correctly rejects this.

The following does what you want:

   fdelim="c "
   awk '
      BEGIN {
         bd = "d "
         fdelim = "'"${fdelim}"'"
      }
   ' hl_l1

						Patrick Hyland.
				   Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, England.