title: awk substr several times in a row
body: <p>I am using <code>awk substr()</code> to extract a sub string from the string.</p>
  
  <p>For example if my string looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>qwertyuiop
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And I want to extract (1-3) &amp; (6-9) characters I use this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>awk '{print (substr($1, 1, 3) substr($1, 6, 4))}'  
  qweyui
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I repeat a specific subtraction several times? </p>
  
  <p>For example, I want to extract (1-3) &amp; (6-9)(6-9)(6-9) characters to get the result like ths:</p>
  
  <pre><code>qweyuioyuioyuio
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Of course I can use a command like this:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>awk '{print (substr($1, 1, 3) substr($1, 6, 4) substr($1, 6, 4) substr($1, 6, 4))}'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a simpler way?</p>