How to search in a file by field - if-statement

Question

I have this input:
AB1 oo1 FE11 aq
cd7 pp9 xw11 as
md1 Al1 as101 sd
ak5 AB1 aw1 sd
ci6 QB7 cr12 sw
do0 RB1 AB1 sq
and need this output: AB1 in the field 1 and 2 and 3
I tried this but there is something wrong:
awk '{ for (i=1;i<NF;i++) { if ($i ~/AB1/) } print $i }' file name
Is thre any thing wrong with my code? Pleaase, tell me and if you have better cods show it to me.
Thank you all

Answer 1

You have some syntax errors in your code:
awk '{ for (i=1;i<NF;i++) { if ($i ~/AB1/) } print $i }' file name
the closing } in if ($i ~/AB1/) } is a mistake, the if needs a command there, and you need a closing } to match the very first {, like this:
awk '{ for (i=1;i<NF;i++) { if ($i ~/AB1/) print $i }}' file name
with this syntax error corrected, the output is:
AB1
AB1
AB1
To print the number of the field with the value AB1, I would write like this:
$ awk '{ for (i=1; i<NF; ++i) if ($i == "AB1") print i }' file
1
2
3

Answer 2

corrected line of code
awk '{ for (i=1;i<NF;i++) { if ($i ~/AB1/) print $i }}' file name
original
awk '{ for (i=1;i<NF;i++) { if ($i ~/AB1/) } print $i }' file name
the problem was bracket u placed it at wrong place

Answer 3

If you want "string in the fields: n n n":
awk -v string="AB1" '
{ if ( maxNF < NF ) { maxNF = NF ; } }
$0~string { we_found_it=1 ;
for (i=1; i<=NF; i++)
{ if ( $i ~ string ) { found_in[i]++ ; }
}
}
END { if ( we_found_it == 1 )
{ printf "%s in the fields: ", string ;
for (i=1; i<=maxNF ; i++)
{ if (found_in[i]>0)
{ printf "%s ", i ;
}
}
}
else
{ printf "%s was NOT found in any fields.", string ;
}
} '
This matches the string anywhere in the field (ex: "...AB1..." matches)
If you prefer an exact match:
awk -v string="AB1" '
{ if ( maxNF < NF ) { maxNF = NF ; } }
$0~string { for (i=1; i<=NF; i++)
{ if ( $i == string )
{ we_found_it=1 ;
found_in[i]++ ;
}
}
}
END { if ( we_found_it == 1 )
{ printf "%s in the fields: ", string ;
for (i=1; i<=maxNF ; i++)
{ if (found_in[i]>0)
{ printf "%s ", i ;
}
}
}
else
{ printf "%s was NOT found in any fields.", string ;
}
} '
That one matches exactly (ie: "AB1" matches "AB1", but not "...AB1kkk")