Node:Print, Next:Print Examples, Previous:Printing, Up:Printing
print StatementThe print statement is used to produce output with simple, standardized
formatting. Specify only the strings or numbers to print, in a
list separated by commas. They are output, separated by single spaces,
followed by a newline. The statement looks like this:
print item1, item2, ...
The entire list of items may be optionally enclosed in parentheses. The
parentheses are necessary if any of the item expressions uses the >
relational operator; otherwise it could be confused with a redirection
(see Redirecting Output of print and printf).
The items to print can be constant strings or numbers, fields of the
current record (such as $1), variables, or any awk
expression. Numeric values are converted to strings and then printed.
The simple statement print with no items is equivalent to
print $0: it prints the entire current record. To print a blank
line, use print "", where "" is the empty string.
To print a fixed piece of text, use a string constant, such as
"Don't Panic", as one item. If you forget to use the
double-quote characters, your text is taken as an awk
expression, and you will probably get an error. Keep in mind that a
space is printed between any two items.