issue with field separators 1

[w5000]

hello,
could someone please explain why the second command doesn't produce the same output?
Must the "-" in my example be always the first on separator list?

$ echo "aaaa-bbbb cccc dddd.eeee"|awk -F["[red]-[/red]|[blue].[/blue]| "] '{print $1"\n"$2"\n"$3"\n"$4"\n"$5}'
aaaa
bbbb
cccc
dddd
eeee
$ echo "aaaa-bbbb cccc dddd.eeee"|awk -F["[blue].[/blue]|[red]-[/red]| "] '{print $1"\n"$2"\n"$3"\n"$4"\n"$5}'
aaaa-bbbb
cccc
dddd
eeee

$

 

[feherke]

Hi

Dash ( - ) has special meaning inside character classes, unless enumerated at one end or escaped.
[ul]
[li][tt][-|.| ][/tt] means any of the characters "-", "|", ".", "|" or " ".[/li]
[li][tt][.|-| ][/tt] means any of the characters ".", a character from "|" to "|" or " ".[/li]
[/ul]

By the way, alternation not works in character classes. You probably want [tt][-. ][/tt], [tt][.\\- ][/tt], or [tt]\\.|-| [/tt].


Feherke.
feherke.github.io