Awk pattern Matching Problem

[gerard4143]

Hi,

I have an if statement in a awk script that will not execute because it generates this error:

fatal: Unmatched ( or \(: /(/

for this if statement :

if ($i ~ /\x28/)

Now I know the problem is \x28 translates to the parenthesis "(" and causes a syntax error but I have no idea how to phrase this so I can match $i to the hex value x28.

I search Google and found nothing, the closest I got was a Fedora book that states "You can quote any special character(but not a digit or a parenthesis) by preceding it with a backslash" - A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux, Sobell...This quote doesn't sound to promising...

...Gerard4143

So does anyone know a way around this?

[lomcevak]

If you have to use the hex value then:

if ($i ~ /[\x28]/)

But why not just:

if ($i ~ /\(/)

[gerard4143]

If you have to use the hex value then:

if ($i ~ /[\x28]/)

But why not just:

if ($i ~ /\(/)

Tried that...and it won't match...

Actually my apologies...it does match but I have to put it at the beginning of the if else if statements...for it to match. I think my problem isn't so much the matching pattern - $i ~ /\(\ - as it is the length of my if else if... statements.

...Gerard4143

[gerard4143]

So both you ideas worked in these simple scripts....now just to figure out why its failing in the multi level if else if statement....Thanks Gerard4143

awk 'BEGIN {FS = "";} {for i = 1; i <= NF; ++i}{if ($i ~ /\(/) {print$i} }' filename

awk 'BEGIN {FS = "";} {for i = 1; i <= NF; ++i}{if ($i ~ /[\x28]/) {print$i} }' filename