BEGIN { A[0] = "&" for(i=1;i<=11;i++) { A[i] = "\\" A[i-1] } ## A[] holds & \& \\& \\\& \\\\& ... } { for(i=0; i <= 11 ; i++) { x = $0 sub(/B/, A[i], x) y = gensub(/B/, A[i], "1", $0) print i, x, y } }