How to make awk gsub return a tab-separated line?

Question

I use awk gsub to replace a string in a specific column of my tab-separated file: ``` cat test.txt 1 1 2032 1 2 1 2032 2 3 1 999 3 4 1 2032 4 5 1 9999 5 ``` However, the modified line is separated by spaces, even if -F "	" was specified: ``` awk -F "	" '{gsub(/^999$/,"XXX",$3);print}' test.txt 1 1 2032 1 2 1 2032 2 3 1 XXX 3 4 1 2032 4 5 1 9999 5 ``` How can I have the modified line(s) separated by tabs as well ?

Accepted Answer

You should set

```
OFS="	"
```

so :

```
awk -F "	" '{gsub(/^999$/, "XXX", $3); print}' OFS="	" test.txt
```

or

```
awk -F "	" -v OFS="	" '{gsub(/^999$/, "XXX", $3); print}' test.txt
```

or

```
awk 'BEGIN{OFS=FS="	"}{gsub(/^999$/, "XXX", $3); print}' OFS="	" test.txt
```

See man awk

How to make awk gsub return a tab-separated line?

Solution

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