The -v option (assigning variables)

This option assigns a value to a variable before the program executes. Such variable values are available inside the BEGIN block. The -v option can only set one variable at a time, but it can be used more than once, setting another variable each time:

-v var=val

--assign var=val

The following example describes the usage of the -v option:

$ awk -v name=Jagmohon 'BEGIN{ printf "Name = %s\n", name }'

This can also be performed as follows:

$ awk --assign=Jagmohan 'BEGIN{ printf "Name = %s\n", name }'

The output on execution of this code is as follows:

Name = Jagmohan

Here is a multiple-value assignment example:

$ awk -v name=Jagmohon -v age=42 'BEGIN{ printf "Name = %s\nAge = %s\n", name, age }'

The output on execution of this code is:

Name = Jagmohan
Age = 42