Re: How can I check if a file exists in gawk?

Ed Morton wrote:
> 
> So, you had something like this:
> 
> BEGIN {
> 	while ((getline < ARGV[1]) > 0) {
> 		do first file stuff
> 	}
> 	close(ARGV[1])
> 	while ((getline < ARGV[2]) > 0) {
> 		do second file stuff
> 	}
> 	close(ARGV[2])
> 	while ((getline < ARGV[3]) > 0) {
> 		do second file stuff
> 	}
> 	close(ARGV[3])
> 	ARGV[1]=ARGV[2]=ARGV[3]=""
> }
> /pattern/ { pattern match in fourth file }
> END { do the end stuff }
> 
> when all you really needed was:
> 
> ARGIND == 1 { do first file stuff; next }
> ARGIND == 2 { do second file stuff; next }
> ARGIND == 3 { do third file stuff; next }
> /pattern/ { pattern match in fourth file }
> END { do the end stuff }
> 
> Replace "ARGIND == N" with "FILENAME == ARGV[N]" if you want a solution
that
> isn't gawk-specific.

Once, in a similar case, I've used something like

   awk -f prog.awk  phase=1 file1  phase=2 file2  fileX fileY fileZ

Where prog.awk had been something like

   phase == 1 { do first file stuff ; next }
   phase == 2 { do second file stuff ; next }
   /whatever/ { do rest of the files}

I've done that to avoid the filename comparison and GNU specifics.

Janis

> 
> 	Ed.
>