Awk: using a variable as a print argument?

[Torinator]

Hi everyone!

I've only been scripting for less than a year, and I've run into a problem trying to use the awk command. The ultimate goal is to use awk to pull values out of a spreadsheet (.csv) and print it in a textfile. I've run into problems because I am trying to code it so that I can specify the variables to print within the awk command:

I've figured out how to do this:

Command:
> grep CVRAM_001_recon cvram_included.csv
Produces:
> CVRAM_001_recon,1.39,-0.2,1.6,0.11,2009/03/04,1,0,1,11,,32,1032,1,12,36.26,162,177,76,82,123, 5.9,1.8,102,195.6,148,43,,0.02,2,67,104.67

I figured out how to reformat it using this:

Command:
> grep CVRAM_001_recon cvram_included.csv | awk -F: 'BEGIN {FS="," ; OFS="\t"} {print "Input",$1,$2,"CVRAM"}'
Produces:
> Input CVRAM_001_recon 1.39 CVRAM

HOWEVER, I want to be able to change the variables (ie - $1,$2)
I have gotten to a point where I have made a variable that has the exact list of items I would like to print out from the spreadsheet, which I am calling $var_list

> echo $var_list
> $12,$15,$19,$20

But remember, this changes based on the variables I want to print out. Ideally, I would like the command above to work like this:

> grep CVRAM_001_recon cvram_included.csv | awk -F: 'BEGIN {FS="," ; OFS="\t"} {print "Input",echo $var_list here,"CVRAM"}'

Which would end up processing as this:

> grep CVRAM_001_recon cvram_included.csv | awk -F: 'BEGIN {FS="," ; OFS="\t"} {print "Input",$12,$15,$19,$20,"CVRAM"}'
> Input 32 12 76 82 CVRAM

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make a variable read like $? within awk? I really appreciate your time and help!

Thanks so much!
Tori

[ghostdog74]

grep is useless when you are using awk.

var="12,15,19"
awk -v var="$var" 'BEGIN{
 FS=","
}
/CVRAM_001_recon/{
 m=split(var,v,",")
 for(i=1;i<=m;i++){
   print $(v[i])
 }
}
' file