How can I use a variable as input in a awk command?-CodePudding

I have this variable:

a='/08/OPT/imaginary/N/08_i_N.out'

I want to use "/" as a field separator.

Then, I want to extract the first pattern.

I have tried:

awk -F/ '{print $1}' "$a"

But I get:

awk: cannot open /08/OPT/imaginary/N/08_i_N.out (No such file or directory)

I do not want the file, only to work on the path of that file.

CodePudding user response：

Same way as any other command, either of these (or other alternatives, e.g. within "here-documents" or passed as awk variables or...):

printf '%s\n' "$a" | command
command <<<"$a"