Hope this helps. echo "test" | awk -v mydate=`date +%Y%m%d` '{printf "standard input is %s\nmy variable value is %s\n",$1,mydate}' :-) Regards, Lou <div class="gmail_quote">On Nov 21, 2007 12:22 PM, ann kok < <a href="mailto:annkok2001@yahoo.com">annkok2001@yahoo.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hi all how can I print date in this date format? 20071122 Can command "date, hostname" run in awk program itself? program.awk BEGIN { RS = "\n" ; FS = "|" } { print "Name:", $9 print "Created: `date`" print "from: `hostname`" print "" } Thank you ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. <a href="http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/</a> -- fedora-list mailing list <a href="mailto:fedora-list@redhat.com"> fedora-list@redhat.com</a> To unsubscribe: <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list" target="_blank">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list</a> </blockquote></div>