How to Print the Last Field in Bash with awk

USECASE

The aim of this page📝 is to explain how to print the last field in a line of text using bash, when the number of fields varies. I was planning to use cut but learned that I need awk at the end.

• Tools Needed: awk, cut.
• Goal: Print the last field of varying field count lines.
• Why: cut is limited to fixed fields.
• Solution: Use awk for dynamic field handling.

Steps

1. Understanding cut: Handles fixed number of fields.
2. Limitation: cut can't handle varying fields.
3. Solution Overview: Use awk to overcome cut limitations.
4. Basic awk Syntax: awk '{print $NF}'.
5. Example: echo "one two three four" | awk '{print $NF}'.
6. Explanation:
   • echo "one two three four": Simulates text input.
   • awk '{print $NF}': Prints last field.
7. File Input: Handle files line by line.
8. File Example:

   cat filename.txt | awk '{print $NF}'

• Explanation:
  • cat filename.txt: Reads file content.
  • awk '{print $NF}': Prints last field of each line.
• Practical Application: Use in scripts for dynamic data processing.