[bug-gawk] Field separators in awk

[Hakon . Hagland]

Hi,

there is a builtin variable RT (  
http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html#Auto_002dset ) that  
contains the matched text by RS, but there is no similar variable for  
FS.

Consider the following case:

http://stackoverflow.com/a/20836890/2173773

In Gnu Awk version 4, the split() function does contain a forth input  
argument "seps" that gives access to the matched text by FS.

However, it seems inefficient to call split() on $0 just to obtain the  
matched text. (Since the field splitting has already been done by awk).

I would propose either to add a new builtin variable, for instance it  
could be called "FT", that contains the separators, or if this is  
inefficient (for the common case, where that variable is not used by  
the user) to have an option (like I have proposed in a previous mail)  
to set FIELDWIDTHS="0" which should make awk skip the field splitting  
process all together, and just assign the whole line to $1, and set  
NF=1. Then it is up to the user to call split() on $0 if he likes to.

Best regards,
Haakon Haegland