awk regex for repeated character

Question

I'm trying to match repeated patterns in strings. I know i can use /^[0-9]{5}$/ at least in perl, but this doesn't seem to work in awk or nawk (no gawk installed).

Any alternative, other than /^[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$/ ?

EDIT:

echo "AAB" > test

script.awk:

#!/usr/bin/nawk -f
BEGIN {}
/^A\{2,2\}/ { print "1"; }
/^A/ { print "2"; }
/A\{2,2\}/ { print "3"; }
/A{2,2}/ { print "4"; }
END {}

./script.awk test

only output (awk or nauk):

escape `{` and `}` using a backslash -> `/^[0-9]\{5\}$/`. This works for me with awk 4.1.1 — bro, Aug 27 '15 at 08:41
What system are you using? The first syntax should be supported by `nawk`. — Tom Fenech, Aug 27 '15 at 08:44
You can't use curly brackets without GNU awk, you also need to use `re-interval` with pre 4 releases. Look here http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~oostr102/docs/nawk/nawk_46.html — 123, Aug 27 '15 at 10:07
Thanks User112638726, that's what i was half-expecting. Answer it :) — vesperto, Aug 27 '15 at 10:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '15 at 22:54

The default awk on Solaris is old, broken awk which should never be used by anyone for any reason. nawk is much better than /usr/bin/awk but is still a very old, non-POSIX awk, and so does not support RE intervals. Almost any other awk will work. On Solaris if you don't have and can't install GNU awk then use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk as it's very close to POSIX compliant and does support RE intervals.

awk regex for repeated character

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