Question

How to print cents symbol ¢, double quotes, and bold-ed text in e-mails produced under Linux from an AWK script

Asked by: jerry_gilels

I'm at a total loss with this one.

This is an AWK scripting question.  If someone can suggest a Perl solution, I'd take that one, too.

Of course I've already tried entering Alt-0162 and a variety of single quotings, double quotings, ticks, double-double quotings, double-single quotings, etc.  But, there must be some simple way to do this that I just haven't tried or know about.
 
Here's the script I want to use to inform our customers about a 5¢ price increase (note the 5¢).  It's important to use the cents symbol, so the perception is that the increase is VERY SMALL. 5¢ is just a "nickel", after all...

========== Script begins here ==========

BEGIN { "date" | getline d
split(d,darr," ")
dtstamp=sprintf("%s %s %s %s\n",darr[1],darr[2],darr[3],darr[6])
}

{

{ thismail = sprintf("echo \"%s\n\nDear %s,\n\nAfter six years of
stable prices, the cost of ink has increased to a point where we can
no longer absorb it. So, we will be increasing the cost of our
premium inks by 5[the cents symbol needs to go here] per pint,
effective May 1, 2007.\n\nWe realize that this may seem like a very
small increase, but over our many customers, and the many, many
gallons shipped, it should cover the increases without greatly
affecting your core business.\n\nThank you for your time.\n\nJerry
Gilels and\nThe TelePrint Operations Team\nCustomer Service Hours:
9am-9pm Mon-Sun (CST)\n\" | mail %s -s\"[Subject goes here]\"",dtstamp,
$5)

}
system(thismail)
}

========== Script ends here ==========

Also, how can I display the double quotes (") symbol and bold-ed text in the same e-mail? I can't get them to work either.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jerry Gilels
Dallas, TX
214-526-9692

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Asked On
2007-03-31 at 06:17:05ID22484493
Tags

symbol

,

cent

Topics

Linux Programming

,

Unix Systems Programming

,

Perl Programming Language

Participating Experts
6
Points
0
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: ozoPosted on 2007-03-31 at 11:14:23ID: 18829159

{ thismail = sprintf("echo \"%s\n\nDear %s,\n\nAfter six years of stable prices, the cost of ink has increased to a point where we can no longer absorb it. So, we will be increasing the cost of our premium inks by 5¢ per pint, effective May 1, 2007.\n\nWe realize that this may seem like a very small increase, but over our many customers, and the many, many gallons shipped, it should cover the increases without greatly affecting your core business.\n\nThank you for your time.\n\nJerry Gilels and\nThe TelePrint Operations Team\nCustomer Service Hours: 9am-9pm Mon-Sun (CST)\n\" | mail %s -s\"[Subject goes here]\"",dtstamp, $5, $5)

}

 

by: mjcoynePosted on 2007-03-31 at 19:41:18ID: 18830909

You can get the cents symbol (¢) in Perl with chr(162), as in:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $cents = chr(162);

print "$cents";

If you need the latin capital letter A with circumflex (Â), it's chr(194).

 

by: ozoPosted on 2007-04-01 at 00:02:56ID: 18831315

you could also use "\242" in either Perl or awk

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2007-04-01 at 09:20:32ID: 18832329

cent symbol for which character set?

Are you aware that your script has no control over the mail client's character set?

 

by: TintinPosted on 2007-04-01 at 17:10:55ID: 18833770

It would be more reliable to generate a PDF or HTML email.

 

by: mjcoynePosted on 2007-04-02 at 04:36:56ID: 18835406

I agree with Tintin -- I think HTML email is the way to go here...

The cents symbol, in HTML, is (predictably enough):

¢

 

by: jerry_gilelsPosted on 2007-04-02 at 07:28:49ID: 18836525

I cannot use HTML.  Not everyone has HTML turned on (me, for example).

So, I got my solution elsewhere.

After several (actually many) incorrrect answers, I contacted another developer (from another web site) and actually WORKED through the problem with him on the phone.

Eventually, someone did come up with PART of the solution (but, not the whole solution) here.  And, it was too late.

The answer:

BEGIN { "date" | getline d
         split(d,darr," ")
         dtstamp=sprintf("%s %s %s %s\n",darr[1],darr[2],darr[3],darr[6])
}

{ thismail = sprintf("echo -e \"%s\n\n \242  \n\n...

}

}
system(thismail)
}

No one got the "echo -e", which is the only thing that makes the octal code work.

Zero Points.

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2007-04-02 at 10:32:48ID: 18838063

and how does this display if you have set your environment variable LANG to UTF-8?

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2007-06-18 at 23:40:21ID: 19313715

I don't see a reason for a refund ...

 

by: VenabiliPosted on 2007-06-19 at 05:49:12ID: 19315288

The asker posted the solution that worked for him.
May not be the best one for the way the question was looking like but it worked for him

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2007-06-19 at 07:10:13ID: 19315932

agreed

 

by: AnnieModPosted on 2007-06-29 at 01:48:42ID: 19387322

PAQed with points refunded (250)

AnnieMod
Cleanup Admin

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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