awk range and selection of text

Question

I know how to use the range operator in awk

awk \'/start/,/stop/\' file

Is it possible to select text inside the range operator? ATM, I am usin

Answer 1

Never use a range expression as it makes trivial jobs very slightly briefer but then requires a complete rewrite or duplicate conditions when the task gets slightly more interesting.

Instead of:

awk '/start/,/stop/' file

Use:

awk '/start/{f=1} f{print} /stop/{f=0}' file

and then what you want to do becomes simply:

awk '/start/{f=1} f{ if ($1~/foo/) { } } /stop/{f=0}' file

I'm assuming you have something in mind for inside the empty { }.