removing lines with special characters in awk - awk

I have a text file like this:
VAREAKAVVLRDRKSTRLN 2888
ACP*VRWPIYTACGP 292
RDRKSTRLNSSHVVTSRMP 114
VAREA*KAVVLRDRRAHV*T 73
in the 1st column in some rows there is a "*". I want to remove all the lines with that '*'. here is the expected output:
expected output:
VAREAKAVVLRDRKSTRLN 2888
RDRKSTRLNSSHVVTSRMP 114
to do so, I am using this code:
awk -F "\t" '{ if(($1 == '*')) { print $1 "," $2} }' infile.txt > outfile.txt
this code does not return the expected output. how can I fix it?

how can I fix it?
You did
awk -F "\t" '{ if(($1 == '*')) { print $1 "," $2} }' infile.txt > outfile.txt
by doing $1 == "*" you are asking: is first field * not does first contain *? You might use index function which does return position of match if found or 0 otherwise. Let infile.txt content be
VAREAKAVVLRDRKSTRLN 2888
ACP*VRWPIYTACGP 292
RDRKSTRLNSSHVVTSRMP 114
VAREA*KAVVLRDRRAHV*T 73
then
awk 'index($1,"*")==0{print $1,$2}' infile.txt
output
VAREAKAVVLRDRKSTRLN 2888
RDRKSTRLNSSHVVTSRMP 114
Note that if you use index rather than pattern /.../ you do not have to care about characters with special meaning, e.g. .. Note that for data you have you do not have to set field separator (FS) explicitly. Important ' is not legal string delimiter in GNU AWK, you should use " for that purpose, unless your intent is to summon hard to find bugs.
(tested in gawk 4.2.1)

with your shown samples, please try following awk program.
awk '$1!~/\*/' Input_file
OR above will print complete line when condition is NOT matched, in case you want to print only 1st and 2nd fields of matched condition line then try following:
awk '$1!~/\*/{print $1,$2}' Input_file

Use grep like so to remove the lines that contain literal asterisk (*). Note that it should be escaped with a backslash (\*) or put in a character class ([*]) to prevent grep from interpreting * as a modifier meaning 0 or more characters:
echo "A*B\nCD" | grep -v '[*]'
CD
Here, GNU grep uses the following options:
-v : Print lines that do not match.

Related

Keep current and previous line only if current line fulfills a given condition

I have a file which looks like this:
>4RYF_1
MAENTKNENITNILTQKLIDTRTVLIYGEINQELAEDVSKQLLLLESISNDPITIFINSQGGHVEAGDTIHDMIKFIKPTVKVVGTGWVASAGITIYLAAEKENRFSLPNTRYMIHQPAGGVQGQSTEIEIEAKEIIRMRERINRLIAEATGQSYEQISKDTDRNFWLSVNEAKDYGIVNEIIENRDGLKMASWSHPQFEK
>4RYF_2
MNLIPTVIEQTSRGERAYDIYSRLLKDRIIMLGSAIDDNVANSIVSQLLFLDAQDPEKDIFLYINSPGGSISAGMAIYDTMNFVKADVQTIGMGMAASMGSFLLTAGANGKRFALPNAEIMIHQPLGGAQGQATEIEIAARHILKIKERMNTIMAEKTGQPYEVIARDTDRDNFMTAQEAKDYGLIDDIIINKSGLKGHHHHHH
I want to keep the sequence and previous line only if the sequence has a given length. For selecting only lines with that condition I use:
awk 'length($0) > 50 && length($0) <=800)' sample.txt
But how can I keep lines starting with > as well if this condition is met?
Yet another awk solution:
awk '/^>/ { header = $0; next } length > 50 && length <= 800 { print header ORS $0 }'
Would you please try the following:
awk -v RS='>' -F'\n' '
length($2) > 50 && length($2) <= 800 {printf ">%s", $0}
' sample.txt
Assigning RS to '>' tells awk to split the file on > into records,
treating the header line and the sequence line in the same record.
Assigning FS to '\n' splits the record to the header and
sequence, each assigning $1 to the header and $2 to the sequence.
As the leading > is chopped off as a delimiter, we need to prepend it
when printing the matched records.
Here is one-liner:
LANG=C grep -B1 '^.\{51,800\}$' < sample.txt
The command was really slow with LANG=en_US.UTF-8 that I set by default, so using LANG=C instead.
man grep tells you that '-B NUM' means ' Print NUM lines of leading context before matching lines.'.
'^' means start of line
'.' means any character
'{51,800}' means we want between 51 and 800 of the previous thing
'$' means end of line.
Or in other words, we want to match lines that are between 51 and 800 characters, and print it and the previous line.
A potential solution with AWK is:
awk '!/^>/ {next}; {getline s}; length(s) > 50 && length(s) <= 800 { print $0 "\n" s }' example.fasta
e.g. if example.fasta contains
>4RYF_1
WLSVNEAKDYGIVNEIIENRDGLKMASWSHPQFEK
>4RYF_2
MNLIPTVIEQTSRGERAYDIYSRLLKDRIIMLGSAIDDNVANSIVSQLLFLDAQDPEKDIFLYINSPGGSISAGMAIYDTMNFVKADVQTIGMGMAASMGSFLLTAGANGKRFALPNAEIMIHQPLGGAQGQATEIEIAARHILKIKERMNTIMAEKTGQPYEVIARDTDRDNFMTAQEAKDYGLIDDIIINKSGLKGHHHHHH
>1000_chars
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
It will only print
>4RYF_2
MNLIPTVIEQTSRGERAYDIYSRLLKDRIIMLGSAIDDNVANSIVSQLLFLDAQDPEKDIFLYINSPGGSISAGMAIYDTMNFVKADVQTIGMGMAASMGSFLLTAGANGKRFALPNAEIMIHQPLGGAQGQATEIEIAARHILKIKERMNTIMAEKTGQPYEVIARDTDRDNFMTAQEAKDYGLIDDIIINKSGLKGHHHHHH
Edit
The method that I would recommend to better handle edge-cases is to use purpose-built bioinformatics software, e.g. seqkit
seqkit seq -m 50 -M 800 example.fasta
>4RYF_2
MNLIPTVIEQTSRGERAYDIYSRLLKDRIIMLGSAIDDNVANSIVSQLLFLDAQDPEKDI
FLYINSPGGSISAGMAIYDTMNFVKADVQTIGMGMAASMGSFLLTAGANGKRFALPNAEI
MIHQPLGGAQGQATEIEIAARHILKIKERMNTIMAEKTGQPYEVIARDTDRDNFMTAQEA
KDYGLIDDIIINKSGLKGHHHHHH
Is perl an option?
perl -nle '$prev && print if length() >50 and length() < 800 && print $prev; $prev = $_' input_file
$prev - Create a variable which will hold every line. When the length condition is met, and there has been a previous line $prev, then it prints the condition matched in $prev and prints the last line.
$prev = $_ Assigns the current line to the prev line variable
If the upper limit 800 is not essential, could sed be an option?
$ sed -En '/>/ {N;/[a-zA-Z0-9]{50,}/p}' input_file
/>/ - Match > and read into the pattern space
N; Run the condition on the next line after the match and append that to the pattern space also:
{50,} - If the length is 50 or more
\1/p - Return it and print
Output
>4RYF_2
MNLIPTVIEQTSRGERAYDIYSRLLKDRIIMLGSAIDDNVANSIVSQLLFLDAQDPEKDIFLYINSPGGSISAGMAIYDTMNFVKADVQTIGMGMAASMGSFLLTAGANGKRFALPNAEIMIHQPLGGAQGQATEIEIAARHILKIKERMNTIMAEKTGQPYEVIARDTDRDNFMTAQEAKDYGLIDDIIINKSGLKGHHHHHH
With your shown samples, please try following awk code. Written and tested with GNU awk.
awk -v RS= '
{
val=""
delete arr
while(match($0,/>[^\n]*\n*[^\n]*/)){
val=substr($0,RSTART,RLENGTH)
split(val,arr,"\n")
if(length(arr[2])>50 && length(arr[2])<=800){
print val
}
$0=substr($0,RSTART+RLENGTH)
}
}
' Input_file
If only the next line should meet the length restrictions, you can match and store the line that starts with > in a variable, for example previous
Then for the next line, check for the length and if the previous line is not empty.
If is is not, print the previous and the current line.
At the end, set the previous variable to an empty string.
awk '{
if (/^>/) {
previous = $0
next
}
if (length(previous) != 0 && length($0) > 50 && length($0) <= 800) {
print previous ORS $0
}
previous=""
}' sample.txt
See an AWK demo

gawk - Delimit lines with custom character and no similar ending character

Let's say I have a file like so:
test.txt
one
two
three
I'd like to get the following output: one|two|three
And am currently using this command: gawk -v ORS='|' '{ print $0 }' test.txt
Which gives: one|two|three|
How can I print it so that the last | isn't there?
Here's one way to do it:
$ seq 1 | awk -v ORS= 'NR>1{print "|"} 1; END{print "\n"}'
1
$ seq 3 | awk -v ORS= 'NR>1{print "|"} 1; END{print "\n"}'
1|2|3
With paste:
$ seq 1 | paste -sd'|'
1
$ seq 3 | paste -sd'|'
1|2|3
Convert one column to one row with field separator:
awk '{$1=$1} 1' FS='\n' OFS='|' RS='' file
Or in another notation:
awk -v FS='\n' -v OFS='|' -v RS='' '{$1=$1} 1' file
Output:
one|two|three
See: 8 Powerful Awk Built-in Variables – FS, OFS, RS, ORS, NR, NF, FILENAME, FNR
awk solutions work great. Here is tr + sed solution:
tr '\n' '|' < file | sed 's/\|$//'
1|2|3
just flatten it :
gawk/mawk 'BEGIN { FS = ORS; RS = "^[\n]*$"; OFS = "|"
} NF && ( $NF ? NF=NF : —-NF )'
ascii | = octal \174 = hex 0x7C. The reason for —-NF is that more often than not, the input includes a trailing new line, which makes field count 1 too many and result in
1|2|3|
Both NF=NF and --NF are similar concepts to $1=$1. Empty inputs, regardless of whether trailing new lines exist or not, would result in nothing printed.
At the OFS spot, you can delimit it with any string combo you like instead of being constrained by tr, which has inconsistent behavior. For instance :
gtr '\012' '高' # UTF8 高 = \351\253\230 = xE9 xAB x98
on bsd-tr, \n will get replaced by the unicode properly 1高2高3高 , but if you're on gnu-tr, it would only keep the leading byte of the unicode, and result in
1 \351 2 \351 . . .
For unicode equiv-classes, bsd-tr works as expected while gtr '[=高=]' '\v' results in
gtr: ?\230: equivalence class operand must be a single character
and if u attempt equiv-classes with an arbitrary non-ASCII byte, bsd-tr does nothing while gnu-tr would gladly oblige, even if it means slicing straight through UTF8-compliant characters :
g3bn 77138 | (g)tr '[=\224=]' '\v'
bsd-tr : 77138=Koyote 코요태 KYT✜ 高耀太
gnu-tr : 77138=Koyote ?
?
태 KYT✜ 高耀太
I would do it following way, using GNU AWK, let test.txt content be
one
two
three
then
awk '{printf NR==1?"%s":"|%s", $0}' test.txt
output
one|two|three
Explanation: If it is first line print that line content sans trailing newline, otherwise | followed by line content sans trailing newline. Note that I assumed that test.txt has not trailing newline, if this is not case test this solution before applying it.
(tested in gawk 5.0.1)
Also you can try this with awk:
awk '{ORS = (NR%3 ? "|" : RS)} 1' file
one|two|three
% is the modulo operator and NR%3 ? "|" : RS is a ternary expression.
See Ed Morton's explanation here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/55998710/14259465
With a GNU sed, you can pass -z option to match line breaks, and thus all you need is replace each newline but the last one at the end of string:
sed -z 's/\n\(.\)/|\1/g' test.txt
perl -0pe 's/\n(?!\z)/|/g' test.txt
perl -pe 's/\n/|/g if !eof' test.txt
See the online demo.
Details:
s - substitution command
\n\(.\) - an LF char followed with any one char captured into Group 1 (so \n at the end of string won't get matched)
|\1 - a | char and the captured char
g - all occurrences.
The first perl command matches any LF char (\n) not at the end of string ((?!\z)) after slurping the whole file into a single string input (again, to make \n visible to the regex engine).
The second perl command replaces an LF char at the end of each line except the one at the end of file (eof).
To make the changes inline add -i option (mind this is a GNU sed example):
sed -i -z 's/\n\(.\)/|\1/g' test.txt
perl -i -0pe 's/\n(?!\z)/|/g' test.txt
perl -i -pe 's/\n/|/g if !eof' test.txt

Convert single column into three comma separated columns using awk

I have a single long column and want to reformat it into three comma separated columns, as indicated below, using awk or any Unix tool.
Input:
Xaa
Ybb
Mdd
Tmmn
UUnx
THM
THSS
THEY
DDe
Output:
Xaa,Ybb,Mdd
Tmmn,UUnx,THM
THSS,THEY,DDe
$ awk '{printf "%s%s",$0,NR%3?",":"\n";}' file
Xaa,Ybb,Mdd
Tmmn,UUnx,THM
THSS,THEY,DDe
How it works
For every line of input, this prints the line followed by, depending on the line number, either a comma or a newline.
The key part is this ternary statement:
NR%3?",":"\n"
This takes the line number modulo 3. If that is non-zero, then it returns a comma. If it is zero, it returns a newline character.
Handling files that end before the final line is complete
The assumes that the number of lines in the file is an integer multiple of three. If it isn't, then we probably want to assure that the last line has a newline. This can be done, as Jonathan Leffler suggests, using:
awk '{printf "%s%s",$0,NR%3?",":"\n";} END { if (NR%3 != 0) print ""}' file
If the final line is short of three columns, the above code will leave a trailing comma on the line. This may or may not be a problem. If we do not want the final comma, then use:
awk 'NR==1{printf "%s",$0; next} {printf "%s%s",(NR-1)%3?",":"\n",$0;} END {print ""}' file
Jonathan Leffler offers this slightly simpler alternative to achieve the same goal:
awk '{ printf("%s%s", pad, $1); pad = (NR%3 == 0) ? "\n" : "," } END { print "" }'
Improved portability
To support platforms which don't use \n as the line terminator, Ed Morton suggests:
awk -v OFS=, '{ printf("%s%s", pad, $1); pad = (NR%3?OFS:ORS)} END { print "" }' file
There is a tool for this. Use pr
pr -3ats,
3 columns width, across, suppress header, comma as separator.
xargs -n3 < file | awk -v OFS="," '{$1=$1} 1'
xargs uses echo as default action, $1=$1 forces rebuild of $0.
Using only awk I would go with this (which is similar to what proposed by #jonathan-leffler and #John1024)
{
sep = NR == 1 ? "" : \
(NR-1)%3 ? "," : \
"\n"
printf sep $0
}
END {
printf "\n"
}

gawk FS to split record into individual characters

If the field separator is the empty string, each character becomes a separate field
$ echo hello | awk -F '' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
5,h,e,l,l,o
However, if FS is a regex that can possibly match zero times, the same behaviour does not occur:
$ echo hello | awk -F ' *' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
1,hello
Anyone know why that is? I could not find anything in the gawk manual. Is FS="" just a special case?
I'm most interested in understanding why the 2nd case does not split the record into more fields. It's as if awk is treating FS=" *" like FS=" +"
Interesting question!
I just pulled gnu-awk 4.1.0's codes, I think the answer we could find in the file field.c.
line 371:
* re_parse_field --- parse fields using a regexp.
*
* This is called both from get_field() and from do_split()
* via (*parse_field)(). This variation is for when FS is a regular
* expression -- either user-defined or because RS=="" and FS==" "
*/
static long
re_parse_field(lo...
also this line: (line 425):
if (REEND(rp, scan) == RESTART(rp, scan)) { /* null match */
here is the case of <space>* matching in your question. The implementation didn't increment the nf, that is, it thinks the whole line is one single field. Note this function was used in do_split() function too.
First, if FS is null string, gawk separates each char into its own field. gawk's doc has clearly written this, also in codes, we could see:
line 613:
* null_parse_field --- each character is a separate field
*
* This is called both from get_field() and from do_split()
* via (*parse_field)(). This variation is for when FS is the null string.
*/
static long
null_parse_field(long up_to,
If the FS has single character, awk won't consider it as regex. This was mentioned in doc too. Also in codes:
#line 667
* sc_parse_field --- single character field separator
*
* This is called both from get_field() and from do_split()
* via (*parse_field)(). This variation is for when FS is a single character
* other than space.
*/
static long
sc_parse_field(l
if we read the function, no regex match handling was done there.
In the comments of the function re_parse_field(), and sc_parse_field(), we see do_split invokes them too. It explains why we have 1 in following command instead of 3:
kent$ echo "foo"|awk '{split($0,a,/ */);print length(a)}'
1
Note, to avoid to make the post too long, I didn't paste the complete codes here, we can find the codes here:
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gawk.git/
As was mentioned, an empty field separator generates undefined behavior; the same code will give different results on different platforms / flavors of awk. For example (all Mac OSX 10.8.5):
> echo hello | awk -F '' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
awk: field separator FS is empty
1,hello
So awk complains, but keeps going.
Let's look at some other examples:
> echo hello | awk -F '.' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
1,hello
A . by itself is not considered a regular expression
> echo hello | awk -F '[.]' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
1,hello
Still nothing
> echo hello | awk -F '.?' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
6,,,,,,
Now we have something like a regex: .? is "zero or one character". It is expanded to one character (which is consumed), so the output is "a whole lot of nothings"
> echo hello | awk -F '*' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
1,hello
Not a regular expression
> echo hello | awk -F '.*' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
2,,
A regular expression that consumes the entire thing
> echo hello | awk -F 'l' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
3,he,,o
Match the letter l twice - two empty strings
> echo hello | awk -F 'ell' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
2,h,o
Match all of ell at once
> echo hello | awk -F '.?|' -v OFS=, '{$1 = NF OFS $1} 1'
awk: illegal primary in regular expression .?| at
input record number 1, file
source line number 1
Attempt to be clever: sometimes an | with empty string on one side will match "anything" but awk's regex engine doesn't like it.
Conclusion - the regular expressions cannot match "empty", and whatever is matched is consumed. Attempts to use (?:.) or even (?=.) generate errors.
It seems to be a special case in gawk.
Traditionally, the behavior of FS equal to "" was not defined. In this
case, most versions of Unix awk simply treat the entire record as only
having one field. (d.c.) In compatibility mode (see Options), if FS is
the null string, then gawk also behaves this way.
What POSIX has to say about this:
If FS is a null string, the behavior is unspecified.
So the gawk behaviour is implementation-specific and sort of explains why your two examples don't yield the same output.
Another data point: gawk and perl disagree on how to do this:
$ perl -E '$,=","; $s="hello"; $r=qr( *); #s=split($r,$s); say scalar(#s), #s'
5,h,e,l,l,o
$ gawk 'BEGIN {s="hello";r=" *";n=split(s,a,r); print n,a[n]; if (s~r) print "match"}'
1 hello
match
$ gawk 'BEGIN {s="hello";r=""; n=split(s,a,r); print n,a[n]; if (s~r) print "match"}'
5 o
match

How to split a delimited string into an array in awk?

How to split the string when it contains pipe symbols | in it.
I want to split them to be in array.
I tried
echo "12:23:11" | awk '{split($0,a,":"); print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
Which works fine. If my string is like "12|23|11" then how do I split them into an array?
Have you tried:
echo "12|23|11" | awk '{split($0,a,"|"); print a[3],a[2],a[1]}'
To split a string to an array in awk we use the function split():
awk '{split($0, array, ":")}'
# \/ \___/ \_/
# | | |
# string | delimiter
# |
# array to store the pieces
If no separator is given, it uses the FS, which defaults to the space:
$ awk '{split($0, array); print array[2]}' <<< "a:b c:d e"
c:d
We can give a separator, for example ::
$ awk '{split($0, array, ":"); print array[2]}' <<< "a:b c:d e"
b c
Which is equivalent to setting it through the FS:
$ awk -F: '{split($0, array); print array[2]}' <<< "a:b c:d e"
b c
In GNU Awk you can also provide the separator as a regexp:
$ awk '{split($0, array, ":*"); print array[2]}' <<< "a:::b c::d e
#note multiple :
b c
And even see what the delimiter was on every step by using its fourth parameter:
$ awk '{split($0, array, ":*", sep); print array[2]; print sep[1]}' <<< "a:::b c::d e"
b c
:::
Let's quote the man page of GNU awk:
split(string, array [, fieldsep [, seps ] ])
Divide string into pieces separated by fieldsep and store the pieces in array and the separator strings in the seps array. The first piece is stored in array[1], the second piece in array[2], and so forth. The string value of the third argument, fieldsep, is a regexp describing where to split string (much as FS can be a regexp describing where to split input records). If fieldsep is omitted, the value of FS is used. split() returns the number of elements created. seps is a gawk extension, with seps[i] being the separator string between array[i] and array[i+1]. If fieldsep is a single space, then any leading whitespace goes into seps[0] and any trailing whitespace goes into seps[n], where n is the return value of split() (i.e., the number of elements in array).
Please be more specific! What do you mean by "it doesn't work"?
Post the exact output (or error message), your OS and awk version:
% awk -F\| '{
for (i = 0; ++i <= NF;)
print i, $i
}' <<<'12|23|11'
1 12
2 23
3 11
Or, using split:
% awk '{
n = split($0, t, "|")
for (i = 0; ++i <= n;)
print i, t[i]
}' <<<'12|23|11'
1 12
2 23
3 11
Edit: on Solaris you'll need to use the POSIX awk (/usr/xpg4/bin/awk) in order to process 4000 fields correctly.
I do not like the echo "..." | awk ... solution as it calls unnecessary fork and execsystem calls.
I prefer a Dimitre's solution with a little twist
awk -F\| '{print $3 $2 $1}' <<<'12|23|11'
Or a bit shorter version:
awk -F\| '$0=$3 $2 $1' <<<'12|23|11'
In this case the output record put together which is a true condition, so it gets printed.
In this specific case the stdin redirection can be spared with setting an awk internal variable:
awk -v T='12|23|11' 'BEGIN{split(T,a,"|");print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
I used ksh quite a while, but in bash this could be managed by internal string manipulation. In the first case the original string is split by internal terminator. In the second case it is assumed that the string always contains digit pairs separated by a one character separator.
T='12|23|11';echo -n ${T##*|};T=${T%|*};echo ${T#*|}${T%|*}
T='12|23|11';echo ${T:6}${T:3:2}${T:0:2}
The result in all cases is
112312
Actually awk has a feature called 'Input Field Separator Variable' link. This is how to use it. It's not really an array, but it uses the internal $ variables. For splitting a simple string it is easier.
echo "12|23|11" | awk 'BEGIN {FS="|";} { print $1, $2, $3 }'
I know this is kind of old question, but I thought maybe someone like my trick. Especially since this solution not limited to a specific number of items.
# Convert to an array
_ITEMS=($(echo "12|23|11" | tr '|' '\n'))
# Output array items
for _ITEM in "${_ITEMS[#]}"; do
echo "Item: ${_ITEM}"
done
The output will be:
Item: 12
Item: 23
Item: 11
Joke? :)
How about echo "12|23|11" | awk '{split($0,a,"|"); print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
This is my output:
p2> echo "12|23|11" | awk '{split($0,a,"|"); print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
112312
so I guess it's working after all..
echo "12|23|11" | awk '{split($0,a,"|"); print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
should work.
echo "12|23|11" | awk '{split($0,a,"|"); print a[3] a[2] a[1]}'
code
awk -F"|" '{split($0,a); print a[1],a[2],a[3]}' <<< '12|23|11'
output
12 23 11
The challenge: parse and store split strings with spaces and insert them into variables.
Solution: best and simple choice for you would be convert the strings list into array and then parse it into variables with indexes. Here's an example how you can convert and access the array.
Example: parse disk space statistics on each line:
sudo df -k | awk 'NR>1' | while read -r line; do
#convert into array:
array=($line)
#variables:
filesystem="${array[0]}"
size="${array[1]}"
capacity="${array[4]}"
mountpoint="${array[5]}"
echo "filesystem:$filesystem|size:$size|capacity:$capacity|mountpoint:$mountpoint"
done
#output:
filesystem:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1|size:4000|usage:40%|mountpoint:/
filesystem:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2|size:5000|usage:50%|mountpoint:/usr
filesystem:/proc|size:0|usage:0%|mountpoint:/proc
filesystem:mnttab|size:0|usage:0%|mountpoint:/etc/mnttab
filesystem:fd|size:1000|usage:10%|mountpoint:/dev/fd
filesystem:swap|size:9000|usage:9%|mountpoint:/var/run
filesystem:swap|size:1500|usage:15%|mountpoint:/tmp
filesystem:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s3|size:8000|usage:80%|mountpoint:/export
awk -F'['|'] -v '{print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3}' file <<<'12|23|11'