CODEWITHSUNDEEP
awk
Ian
Ian

Reputation: 1717

How do I assign an array to an element of a multidimensional array?

GNU Awk 5.1.0

I'm building up an associative array using operations such as:

ptf["sysmodName"] = strip(a[1])
ptf["sysmodType"] = strip(a[2])

When I've finished building this, I'd like to assign it to an array of arrays using something like:

x = ptf["sysmodName"]
ptfs[x] = ptf

but awk complains:

 fatal: attempt to use array `ptf' in a scalar context

Is there an easy way to assign an entire array to an element of a multi-dimentional array in its entirety, or am I obliged to do it an element at a time?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 329

Answers (1)

Ed Morton
Ed Morton

Reputation: 204218

You are obliged to do it 1 element at a time:

x = ptf["sysmodName"]
for (y in ptf) {
    ptfs[x][y] = ptf[y]
}

If ptf[] was a true multi-dimensional array, i.e. an array of arrays as supported by gawk, then see How do you copy a multi-dimensional array (i.e. an array of arrays) in awk?.

Upvotes: 4

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