Unix Tip: EXTRACT THAT LAST FIELD

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UNIX HOT TIP

Unix Tip 3578 - November 25, 2012

http://www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/show?tip.today

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EXTRACT THAT LAST FIELD

You can use 'cut' to extract the last field of a line if you know
how many fields there are, eg:

field=`cut -d: -f8 file`

But if you don't know the maximum number of fields or the number
of fields per line are not consistent, awk can come to the rescue.
awk has the inbuilt variable NF for the number of fields. By using
this variable we can use it to extract the last field by using:

field=`awk -F: '{print $NF}'`

or you can use calculations to retrieve any field relative to the last field.
For example to retrieve the second last field, use:

field=`awk -F: '{print $(NF-1)}'`


This tip generously supported by: peters@ginini.com.au




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