How to initialize an array of arrays in awk?

Question

Is it possible to initialize an array like this in AWK ?

Colors[1] = (\"Red\", \"Green\", \"Blue\")
Colors[2] = (\"Yellow\", \"Cyan\", \"Purple\")
         


        

Answer 1

A similar solution. SUBSEP=":" is not really needed, just set to any visible char for demo:

awk 'BEGIN{SUBSEP=":"
split("Red Green Blue",a); for(i in a) Colors[1,i]=a[i];
split("Yellow Cyan Purple",a); for(i in a) Colors[2,i]=a[i];
for(i in Colors) print i" => "Colors[i];}'

Or a little bit more cryptic version:

awk 'BEGIN{SUBSEP=":"
split("Red Green Blue Yellow Cyan Purple",a); 
for(i in a) Colors[int((i-1)/3)+1,(i-1)%3+1]=a[i];
for(i in Colors) print i" => "Colors[i];}'

Output:

1:1 => Red
1:2 => Green
1:3 => Blue
2:1 => Yellow
2:2 => Cyan
2:3 => Purple