How can I format this awk command?

Question

How can I format this awk command?

$ echo "$(lastlog | grep $USER | awk '{print $(NF-5)" "$(NF-3)" "$(NF-4)" "$(NF-2)" "$(NF-1)" "$(NF-0)}')"
Thu 7 Sep 05:56:35 +0100 2023

I want to replace the +0100 bit with BST or GMT if the value is +0000 (I am aware that this output is probably dependent on the locale).

I did test for the value of $(NF-1) to conditionally set a variable, but I don’t know how to put the variable within the awk print command.

I also want to put an extra space between $(NF-5) and $(NF-3) when $(NF-3) (the date) is a single digit, but not when it is two digits.

How best can this be done?

Asked By: paradroid

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Source

Answer 1

For the time zone, I’d suggest adding an if-statement, since you want to check for two possible values:

if($(NF-1)=="+0000") {zone="GMT"}
else if ($(NF-1)=="+0100") {zone="BST"}
else {zone=$(NF-1)}

Then print the zone variable as defined above. (print zone)

The if-statement cannot be put into a print / printf command directly, whereas if you had only one change e.g. +0000 -> GMT this would work:

print $(NF-1)=="+0000"?"GMT":$(NF-1)

For space-padding $(NF-3), the sound way is using printf.

printf "%2s",$(NF-3)

In summary:

awk '{
    if($(NF-1)=="+0000") {zone="GMT"}
    else if ($(NF-1)=="+0100") {zone="BST"}
    else {zone=$(NF-1)}

    printf "%s %2s %s %s %s %s",$(NF-5),$(NF-3),$(NF-4),$(NF-2),zone,$(NF-0)
}'

Answered By: FelixJN