I have two files of output. File1 contains: MachineObjID Name TypeID File2 contains: MCID MachineObjID Primary Secondary I'd like have an awk script that will take $1 in File1, search for this in File2, then insert $2 from File1 into File2. So, the result will look something like: MCID MachineObjID Name Primary Secondary I know how to manipulate a single file, but don't know how to take a variable from one file to use in another. Any ideas? thanks, Koshare

I'm not sure about doing this in just AWK by itself. Are you against the idea of a script? IR

Koshare, I wrote a Awk / Bash script to do what you are wanting to do. There may be a easier way or more streamlined... but this script works. I developed and ran it on a Gentoo Linux box, so the Solaris platform should not be a problem. I decided to brush up on my scripting and awk... plus I'm starting a collection of code that I write for people on various forums so I can reference it when others need the same info. Here it is, enjoy: --- #!/bin/bash # Infinite Recursion # 7/15/04 # Purpose: Computing.Net Support for user koshare, # thread 10872 # Reading each line of the first data file LINES=`cat data.txt` for i in $LINES do # Parsing each line into individual variables for # comparison. Notice the data files must be # delimited with a ":". MOID=`echo $i | awk -F":" '{print $1}';` NAME=`echo $i | awk -F":" '{print $2}';` TYPEID=`echo $i | awk -F":" '{print $3}';` # Grab the line from the second data file that contains the # value that is being searched for from the first data file # which is $1 or in this case $MOID LINES2=`cat data2.txt | grep $MOID` # Parse the line received from the second data file and # assign the values into variables for use in the final string # construction. MCID=`echo $LINES2 | awk -F":" '{print $1}';` MOID=`echo $LINES2 | awk -F":" '{print $2}';` PRIM=`echo $LINES2 | awk -F":" '{print $3}';` SEC=`echo $LINES2 | awk -F":" '{print $4}';` # Sending the new line that contains what the values we # want into a temporary file echo $MCID " " $MOID " " $NAME " " $PRIM " " $SEC >> temp.dat done -- The data and result files: Grendel awk # cat data.txt Grendel:Apache:Public Beowulf:FTP:Private Grendel awk # cat data2.txt 001:Grendel:user1:user2 002:Beowulf:user3:user4 Grendel awk # cat temp.dat 001 Grendel Apache user1 user2 002 Beowulf FTP user3 user4 ----- "cnet_koshare_10872.awk" 34L, 1118C Hope it helps. IR

awk 'BEGIN {i=0 ; while (getline < "File1") { l[i]=$0 ; i++ } } ; { for (j=0 ; j<=i ; j++) { split(l[j],f) ; if (f[1] == $2) print $1,$2,f[2],$3,$4} }' File2