bash (awk) split string

Question

I have a string:

b="123 321 || 431543 653 || 039 ||"

I use " || " as separator. I want to separate it in 3 strings:

123 321
431543 653
039 ||

When I try to split it with bash:

for element in ${b//" || "/ } ; do echo $element; done

The result:

123
321
431543
653
039
||

When I use awk - I have same result (I get only the first number, but result is expected to be "123 321"):

echo $b |awk '{split($0,a," || "); print a[1]}'
123

Answer 1

you need to escape pipe char

$ awk -v b="123 321 || 431543 653 || 039 ||" 'BEGIN{print split(b,a," \\|\\| ")}'
3

note that size is not 4 but 3, since the last delimiter is missing the trailing space char. Perhaps you should make the wrapping space chars optional.