fawk: a Bash shell function to save your fingers from typing awk '{ print $x }' all the time

fawk.sh

#!/bin/bash
##############################################################################
##                                                                          ##
##             fawk! - a shortcut for `awk '{ print $x }'`                  ##
##             (also an expression of extreme frustration)                  ##
##            ---------------------------------------------                 ##
##                                                                          ##
##  Author:       Kevin Ernst <ernstki -at- mail.uc.edu>                    ##
##  Inspiration:  http://serverfault.com/a/5551 (but basically rewritten)   ##
##  Mnemonic:     "Field Awk"                                               ##
##                                                                          ##
##############################################################################

function fawk() {
    local file last rest=()
    local GIST='https://gist.github.com/ernstki/68c7b7da28d9a8c9ced7'
    local USAGE="
  usage:     fawk [-h|--help] [<awk_args>] <field_no> [<filename>]

  examples:  $ ps | fawk 2 | sort -u                   # list all ttys in use
             $ fawk -F: 7 /etc/passwd | sort -u        # all users' shells
             $ getent passwd | grep andy | fawk -F: 5  # get Andy's GECOS info

  feedback:  $GIST
"
    # set TRACE=1 in the environment for debugging
    (( ${TRACE:-} )) && set -x

    # no arguments, or -h / --help
    if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
        echo "$USAGE" >&2
        return 1
    elif [[ $1 =~ ^--?h ]]; then
        echo "$USAGE"
        return
    fi

    # Store off the *last* argument given on the command line
    last="${@:(-1)}"

    # remember all but the last
    if [[ $# -gt 1 ]]; then
        # Source: https://tinyurl.com/yxelzloj (cyberciti.biz)
        rest=( ${@:1:$(( $# - 1 ))} )
    fi

    # If the last argument is a readable "thing" (file, process substitution,
    # pipe), then the argument before it needs to be a number.
    if [[ -r $last ]]; then
        # Test to see if we still have enough arguments:
        if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
            echo >&2
            echo "FAWK! Insufficient arguments (need 2). Try '--help'." >&2
            echo "$USAGE" >&2
            return 1
        fi

        file=$last

        # New $last is the final element of $rest
        last=${rest[@]:(-1)}

        # Pop last element of $rest (using Bash index operator)
        rest=( "${rest[@]:0:$(( ${#rest[@]} - 1 ))}" )

        # make sure the new last argument was an integer
        if [[ $last =~ [^0-9] ]]; then
            echo >&2
            echo "FAWK! When giving a filename, the second-to-last"\
                 "argument (Awk field) must be numeric." >&2
            echo "$USAGE" >&2;
            return 1
        fi

    # bail if the *last* argument isn't a number (see
    # http://stackoverflow.com/a/808740 for a Bourne-compatible technique)
    elif [[ $last =~ [^0-9] ]]; then
        echo >&2
        echo "FAWK! Unless you give a filename, the last argument (Awk"\
             "field) must be numeric." >&2
        echo "$USAGE" >&2;
        return 1
    fi

    # $file might be the empty string; in that case, Awk will wait for stdin
    awk "${rest[@]}" "{ print \$$last }" ${file:+"$file"}
} # fawk

# only if it's invoked like a script
[[ $0 == ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} ]] && fawk "$@"

# fawk

Yes, getent passwd | grep andy | fawk -F: 5 wastes a precious process, and could be done in pure AWK anyway

getent passwd | awk -F: '/andy/ { print $5 }'

but... those braces... are so hard to type.