Is it possible to use an awk if condition to print a specific column if the chosen column is only values or characters?
below is an example:
echo "This is example test 1 for VAL1 value = int or VAL2 = string" | awk '{if ($5 == [0-9]) print $10 else print $14}'
OR:
echo "This is example test one for VAL1 value = int or VAL2 = string" | awk '{if ($5 == [A-Z]) print $14; else print $10}'
The two examples above is determening from the awk if column 5 is all values or numbers and print a specific column based on column if whether it is only numbers or has string characters. In my example it can only be one or the either and not both mixed with numbers and characters.
How is it possible to do this using an awk?
Here is the problem:
$5 == [0-9]
In awk we use == operator for equality not for regex evaluation. We must use ~ for regex and also enclose a regex in /.../ notation.
So all of these awk solutions should work for you:
# check presence of a digit anywhere in the fifth field
awk '{print ($5 ~ /[0-9]/ ? $10 : $14)}'
# check if fifth field contains 1+ digits only
awk '{print ($5 ~ /^[0-9]+$/ ? $10 : $14)}'
# awk shorthand to check if $5 is numeric value
awk '{print ($5+0 == $5 ? $10 : $14)}'
Similarly to check an uppercase character use:
awk '{print ($5 ~ /[A-Z]/ ? $14 : $10)}'