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awktutorial|learnawk(linux)programming

awktutorial
Whyawk?

Examples
Printeverylineaftererasingthe2ndfield

TheAwktextprocessingprogramminglanguageandisausefultoolfor awk'{$2="";print}'file
manipulatingtext.
Printhi48times
Awkrecognizestheconceptsof"file","record",and"field".
Afileconsistsofrecords,whichbydefaultarethelinesofthefile.One yes|head48|awk'{print"hi"}'
linebecomesonerecord.
Printhi.0010tohi.0099
Awkoperatesononerecordatatime.
Arecordconsistsoffields,whichbydefaultareseparatedbyany
yes|head90|awk'{printf("hi00%2.0fn",NR+9)}'
numberofspacesortabs.
printwhencolumn3is<1900(inmyfile.txt).Ifavalueisnot
Fieldnumber1isaccessedwith$1,field2with$2,andsoforth.$0
numeric,itdoesn'tcomplain
referstothewholerecord.
catmyfile.txt|awk'{if($3<1900)print$3,"",$5,$7,$8}'
[awkuser@p3nlh096~]$awkhelp
Usage:awk[POSIXorGNUstyleoptions]fprogfile[]file...
Countnumberoflineswherecol3>col1
Usage:awk[POSIXorGNUstyleoptions][]'program'file...
POSIXoptions:GNUlongoptions:
awk'$3>$1{printi+"1";i++}'file
fprogfilefile=progfile
Ffsfieldseparator=fs
printonlylinesoflessthan65characters
vvar=valassign=var=val
m[fr]val
awk'length<64'
Wcompatcompat
Wcopyleftcopyleft
Wcopyrightcopyright
Wdumpvariables[=file]dumpvariables[=file]
Wexec=fileexec=file
Wgenpogenpo
Whelphelp
Wlint[=fatal]lint[=fatal]
Wlintoldlintold
Wnondecimaldatanondecimaldata
Wprofile[=file]profile[=file]
Wposixposix
Wreintervalreinterval
Wsource=programtextsource=programtext
Wtraditionaltraditional
Wusageusage
Wversionversion
Toreportbugs,seenode`Bugs'in`gawk.info',whichis
section`ReportingProblemsandBugs'intheprintedversion.
gawkisapatternscanningandprocessinglanguage.
Bydefaultitreadsstandardinputandwritesstandardoutput.
Examples:
gawk'{sum+=$1};END{printsum}'file
gawkF:'{print$1}'/etc/passwd

Now,foranexplanationofthe{print}codeblock.Inawk,curlybraces
areusedtogroupblocksofcodetogether,similartoC.Insideourblock
ofcode,wehaveasingleprintcommand.Inawk,whenaprintcommand
appearsbyitself,thefullcontentsofthecurrentlineareprinted.
$awk'{print$0}'/etc/passwd
output

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
...

Inawk,the$0variablerepresentstheentirecurrentline,soprintand
print$0doexactlythesamething.
$awk'{print""}'/etc/passwd

$awk'{print"hello"}'/etc/passwd

Runningthisscriptwillfillyourscreenwithhello's.
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AWKVariables
awkvariablesareinitializedtoeitherzeroortheemptystringthefirst
timetheyareused.
Variables
Variabledeclarationisnotrequired
Maycontainanytypeofdata,theirdatatypemaychangeoverthelife
oftheprogram
Mustbeginwithaletterandcontinuingwithletters,digitsand
underscores
Arecasesenstive
Someofthecommonlyusedbuiltinvariablesare:
NRThecurrentline'ssequentialnumber
NFThenumberoffieldsinthecurrentline
FSTheinputfieldseparatordefaultstowhitespaceandisreset
bytheFcommandlineparameter
/test$catcalc
356
56789
/test$awk'{d=($2($14));s=($2+$1);printd/sqrt(s),d*d/s}'calc
7.4207755.0678
18.5066342.494
/test$

inaboveexamplewehaveafilecalcwithtworowsandtwocolumns.
Notethatthefinalstatement,a"print"inthiscase,doesnotneeda
semicolon.Itdoesn'thurttoputitin,though.
Integervariablescanbeusedtorefertofields.Ifonefieldcontains
informationaboutwhichotherfieldisimportant,thisscriptwillprint
onlytheimportantfield:
$awk'{imp=$1;print$imp}'calc

ThespecialvariableNFtellsyouhowmanyfieldsareinthisrecord.This
scriptprintsthefirstandlastfieldfromeachrecord,regardlessofhow
manyfieldsthereare:
ifnowcalcfileis
356abd
56789xyz
$awk'{print$1,$NF}'calc
3abd
567xyz

BeginandEnd
AnyactionassociatedwiththeBEGINpatternwillhappenbeforeany
linebylineprocessingisdone.ActionswiththeENDpatternwill
happenafteralllinesareprocessed.
1.Oneistojustmashthemtogether,likeso:
>
awk'BEGIN{print"fee"}$1=="foo"{print"fi"}
END{print"fofum"}'filename

AWKArrays
awkhasarrays,buttheyareonlyindexedbystrings.Thiscanbevery
useful,butitcanalsobeannoying.Forexample,wecancountthe
frequencyofwordsinadocument(ignoringtheickypartaboutprinting
themout):
$awk'{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++)freq[$i]++}'filename

Thearraywillholdanintegervalueforeachwordthatoccurredinthe
file.Unfortunately,thistreats"foo","Foo",and"foo,"asdifferentwords.
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Ohwell.Howdoweprintoutthesefrequencies?awkhasaspecial"for"
constructthatloopsoverthevaluesinanarray.Thisscriptislongerthan
mostcommandlines,soitwillbeexpressedasanexecutablescript:
#!/usr/bin/awkf
{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++)freq[$i]++}
END{for(wordinfreq)printword,freq[word]
}

AWKRegularexpressionsandblocks

awk'/pattern_to_match/{actions}'input_file
awk'/foo/{print}'abc.txt
catabc.txt|awk'/[09]+.[09]*/{print}'

Expressionsandblocks
fredprint
$1=="fred"{print$3}
root
$5~/root/{print$3}
AWKConditionalstatements
awk'{
if($1~/root/)
{
print$1
}
}'/etc/passwd

Bothscriptsfunctionidentically.Inthefirstexample,theboolean
expressionisplacedoutsidetheblock,whileinthesecondexample,the
blockisexecutedforeveryinputline,andweselectivelyperformthe
printcommandbyusinganifstatement.Bothmethodsareavailable,and
youcanchoosetheonethatbestmesheswiththeotherpartsofyour
script.
if
{

if($1=="foo"){

if($2=="foo"){

print"uno"

}else{

print"one"

}
}elseif($1=="bar"){

print"two"
}else{

print"three"
}

if
!/matchme/{print$1$3$4}
{

if($0!~/matchme/){

print$1$3$4

}
}

Bothscriptswilloutputonlythoselinesthatdon'tcontainamatchme
charactersequence.Again,youcanchoosethemethodthatworksbest
foryourcode.Theybothdothesamething.
($1=="foo")&&($2=="bar"){print}
Thisexamplewillprintonlythoselineswherefieldoneequalsfooand
fieldtwoequalsbar.
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awktutorial|learnawk(linux)programming

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