# Short answer:
# If you're getting unwanted spaces between the items you're printing
# with awk you probably need to remove commas between the items.
# Example of problem:
# $1 and $2 are the first and second fields/columns of the the file_to_parse
awk '{print $1, "some-text", $2}' file_to_parse
--> field_1 some-text field_2
# If you didn't want spaces, remove the commas:
awk '{print $1 "some-text" $2}' file_to_parse
--> field_1some-textfield_2