File: gawk.info,  Node: Single Character Fields,  Next: Command Line Field Separator,  Prev: Regexp Field Splitting,  Up: Field Separators

4.5.3 Making Each Character a Separate Field
--------------------------------------------

There are times when you may want to examine each character of a record
separately.  This can be done in 'gawk' by simply assigning the null
string ('""') to 'FS'.  (c.e.)  In this case, each individual character
in the record becomes a separate field.  For example:

     $ echo a b | gawk 'BEGIN { FS = "" }
     >                  {
     >                      for (i = 1; i <= NF; i = i + 1)
     >                          print "Field", i, "is", $i
     >                  }'
     -| Field 1 is a
     -| Field 2 is
     -| Field 3 is b

   Traditionally, the behavior of 'FS' equal to '""' was not defined.
In this case, most versions of Unix 'awk' simply treat the entire record
as only having one field.  (d.c.)  In compatibility mode (*note
Options::), if 'FS' is the null string, then 'gawk' also behaves this
way.