Question

BEGIN and END are causing syntax errors in my pretty simple script.

The general outline of the script is:

args=("$0")
gawk -v var=0 '{
 *do stuff based on input file
 *stuff gets assigned to var
 *END{ print var}
}' ${args[0]}

I get the following error, and I have no idea why:

gawk: cmd. line:x:    END { ... }
gawk: cmd. line:x:    ^ syntax error

EDIT:
So Adam Liss was right! I had an error with my curly braces.

What I was essentially doing was gawk ‘{script END{stuff}}’ when I should’ve been doing gawk'{script}END{stuff}’

Thanks Adam!

Answer 1

This might work for you:

args=("$0")
gawk -v var=0 '{
 #do stuff based on input file
 #stuff gets assigned to var
}
END{ print var}' ${args[0]}