My problem is a file containing 150 columns and the needed columns are 145... how can i list the columns needed and spool them to a file without getting the unwanted 5 columns???

By the way, those unwanted columns are not in sequential state but they are randomly selected....

Thank you for your kind cooperation...

Aladimi

You could have a really long print statement such as:

print $1,$2,$3...$150

and change it as required.  Somewhat less cumbersome might be a script such as follows that will output all columns except those specified for exclusion:

awk 'BEGIN {
exclude["3"]=1
exclude["6"]=1
exclude["9"]=1
exclude["12"]=1
#OFS=","
}

{out=""
 for (i=1;i<=NF;i++)
    if (i in exclude)
       continue
    else
       out=out ((out=="") ? "" : OFS) $i
 print out
}' filein

You did not say how the columns are randomly selected, but for example, the BEGIN procedure could load its exclusion array from a different file.

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i really appreciate your response but its not working well...

awk: syntax error near line 11
awk: illegal statement near line 11
awk: syntax error near line 13
awk: illegal statement near line 13
awk: syntax error near line 14
awk: illegal statement near line 14

those are the out errors appearing when execution is committed.

Aladimi

If you have nawk, try that instead.  If that does not do it, try the version below.  I replaced the ? construct with a simple if-statement.

awk 'BEGIN {
exclude["20"]=1
exclude["33"]=1
exclude["35"]=1
#OFS=","
}

{out=""
 for (i=1;i<=NF;i++)
    if (i in exclude)
       continue
    else
       if (out=="")
          out=$i
       else
          out=out OFS $i
 print out
}' filein

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Thank you very much ... that did work perfectly ... i added -F"|" after the nawk command.... i forgot to tell ya that the separator in my file in Pipe |...

Thanks anyway

Aladimi