awk 

Arrays 3

Other Ways to Display Arrays

We've seen 2 ways to sort an array using asort, asorti but there are several more ways to sort an array using predefined array scanning orders.

Using the array from the previous page:

BEGIN {
	print "Using PROCINFO ...\n"
	awry["three"] = "blueberry"
	awry["two"] = "cherry"
	awry["seven"] = "pineapple"
	awry["eight"] = "orange"
	awry["five"] = "grape"
	awry["six"] = "strawberry"
	awry["four"] = "apple"
	awry["1"] = "pear"
	PROCINFO["sorted_in"] = "@ind_str_asc"
	print "\nSorted by index in ascending order ...";
	for (i in awry) {
		print i " : " awry[i]
	}

This is the same as the previous method.

Think of that as index string ascending

Here is a list of all the 'arguments' you can use with PROCINFO:

• @unsorted
  elements are processed in arbitrary order
• @ind_str_asc
  ascending order compared as strings
• @ind_num_asc
  ascending order but force them to be treated as numbers
• @val_type_asc
  order values in ascending order (rather than by indices).
  Ordering is by the type assigned to the element
  Subarrays come out last
• @val_str_asc
  order element values in ascending order (rather than by indices)
  Scalar values are compared as strings.
  Subarrays, if present, come out last.
• @val_num_asc
  order element values in ascending order (rather than by indices).
  Scalar values are compared as numbers.
  Subarrays, if present, come out last.
• @ind_str_desc
  string indices are ordered from high to low
• @ind_num_desc
  numeric indices are ordered from high to low
• @val_type_desc
  element values, based on type, are ordered from high to low
  Subarrays, if present, come out first.
• @val_str_desc
  element values, treated as strings, are ordered from high to low
  Subarrays, if present, come out first.
• @val_num_desc
  element values, treated as numbers, are ordered from high to low
  Subarrays, if present, come out first.

That is a LOT of control available!

Observant readers will also want to know what subarrays are.

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