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From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk
Subject: Re: Nitpicking the code (Was: Experiences with match()
 subexpressions?)
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:53:01 +0200
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On 14.04.2025 20:20, Kenny McCormack wrote:
> In article <vtgtkr$3br8e$1@dont-email.me>,
> Ed Morton  <mortonspam@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
>>     data = "R=\"R=r1,R=r2\",R=r2,R=r3,E=e"
>>     nf = patsplit(data, arr, /[RE]=([^,]*|"([^"]|"")*")/)
>>     delete arr
>>     for ( i in arr ) {
>>         sub(/[^=]+=/, "", arr[i])
>>     }
> 
> This can't be right, since if the sequence:
>     delete arr
>     for (i in arr) ...
> can't possibly do anything.  I.e., the for statement will be a no-op, since
> the array is empty at that point.
> 
>> or any awk:
>>
>>     data = "R=\"R=r1,R=r2\",R=r2,R=r3,E=e"
>>     nf = 0
>>     delete arr
>>     while ( match(data, /[RE]=([^,]*|"([^"]|"")*")/, a) ) {
>>         arr[++nf] = substr(data, RSTART+2, RLENGTH-2)
>>         data = substr(data, RSTART+RLENGTH)
>>     }
> 
> I believe "delete arr" (without an index, hence removing the entire array)
> is an "extension".  I can't quite quote chapter and verse, but I note that
> "man mawk" explicitly mentions that mawk supports this syntax, thereby
> implying that it isn't "standard".  Of course, gawk supports it as well.
> 
> So, if by "any awk", you mean "strictly standard", then, well, you can see
> where I am going with this.

I seem to recall that a standard way to clear an array could be using
  split("", arr)
for example. To my taste it looks a bit clumsy, not as nice as using
'delete', but well, whatever one prefers.

Janis