From Newsgroup: comp.lang.awk

In GNU Awk I'm working with UTF-8 data and want to count _bytes_.

$ awk '{print length}'
aaa
3
|n|n|n
3

Resetting the locale fixes this...

$ LC_ALL=C awk '{print length}'
aaa
3
|n|n|n
6

...but spoils that...

$ LC_ALL=C awk '{print length, ">" substr ($0, 2) "<" }'
aaa
3 >aa<
|n|n|n
6 >N++|n|n<

So fiddling with the locale seems inappropriate.

This one seems to works, but appears to be a bit clumsy...

$ awk '{print length (sprintf ("%s", $0)), ">" substr ($0, 2) "<" }'
aaa
3 >aa<
|n|n|n
3 >|n|n<

Is there any simpler (still native) way to keep string processing
logic to UTF-8 data intact but have the _byte count_ available?

Janis

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.awk

On 2026-08-25 15:57, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

In GNU Awk I'm working with UTF-8 data and want to count _bytes_.
[...]
This one seems to works, but appears to be a bit clumsy...

$ awk '{print length (sprintf ("%s", $0)), ">" substr ($0, 2) "<" }'
aaa
3 >aa<
|n|n|n
3 >|n|n<

Darn, no! (Need some coffee.) - It should of course have been

6 >|n|n<

So the original question remains:

Is there any simpler (still native) way to keep string processing
logic to UTF-8 data intact but have the _byte count_ available?

Janis

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.awk

In article <116k77e$32eog$3@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

So the original question remains:

Is there any simpler (still native) way to keep string processing
logic to UTF-8 data intact but have the _byte count_ available?

The "mbs" extension in gawkextlib has an mbs_length() function
that will do the job:

------------------
@load "mbs"

{ print length($0), mbs_length($0) }
------------------

Try it out.

Otherwise, no, there is no way within gawk to get what you want.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.awk

On 2026-08-25 16:26, Mack The Knife wrote:

In article <116k77e$32eog$3@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

So the original question remains:

Is there any simpler (still native) way to keep string processing
logic to UTF-8 data intact but have the _byte count_ available?

The "mbs" extension in gawkextlib has an mbs_length() function
that will do the job:

------------------
@load "mbs"

{ print length($0), mbs_length($0) }
------------------

Try it out.

cannot open shared library `mbs' for reading: No such file or directory

Hmm.. - I'm getting an error (seems I need more information about that;
usually I don't use extensions!); I'll see how to fix my installation.


(Or maybe I'll just invoke a 'getline' on a Unix "wc -c" co-process.)

Otherwise, no, there is no way within gawk to get what you want.

Thanks for the confirmation!

Janis

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.awk

In article <116kbca$32eog$4@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-25 16:26, Mack The Knife wrote:

In article <116k77e$32eog$3@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

So the original question remains:

Is there any simpler (still native) way to keep string processing
logic to UTF-8 data intact but have the _byte count_ available?

The "mbs" extension in gawkextlib has an mbs_length() function
that will do the job:

------------------
@load "mbs"

{ print length($0), mbs_length($0) }
------------------

Try it out.

cannot open shared library `mbs' for reading: No such file or directory

Hmm.. - I'm getting an error (seems I need more information about that; >usually I don't use extensions!); I'll see how to fix my installation.

(Or maybe I'll just invoke a 'getline' on a Unix "wc -c" co-process.)

Otherwise, no, there is no way within gawk to get what you want.

Thanks for the confirmation!

You're welcome.

The gawkextlib project is separate from gawk itself. There are pointers
to it in the gawk manual. See gawkextlib's documentation for building
and installation.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2