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From: Bruce <07.013@scorecrow.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk
Subject: FIELDWIDTHS helper
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2025 10:23:10 +0100
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The other day I found myself unable to count field sizes accurately so I
wrote this little helper.

NR == 1 { # Pick a line
     print
     nf = split(FIELDWIDTHS, fw)
     for (i = 1; i <= nf; i++)
         for (j = 1; j <= fw[i]; j++)
             printf "%d", (i % 10)
     print ""
}


Example:

with FIELDWIDTHS = "1 3 5"

Output:

A dummy line from a file
122233333

-- 
Bruce Horrocks
Hampshire, England