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Get started with GAWK: AWK language fundamentals

Begin learning AWK with the open source GAWK implementation

Michael Stutz, Author, Freelance Developer

Michael Stutz is author of The Linux Cookbook , which he also designed and typeset using only open source software. His research interests include digital publishing and the future of the book. He has used various UNIX operating systems for 20 years. You can reach him at stutz@dsl.org.

Summary: Discover the basic concepts of the AWK text-processing and pattern-scanning language. This tutorial gets you started programming in AWK: You'll learn how AWK reads and sorts its input data, run AWK programs, manipulate data, and perform complex pattern matching. When you're finished, you'll also understand GNU AWK (GAWK).

Date: 19 Sep 2006
Level: Intermediate
PDF: A4 and Letter (109 KB | 24 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 29304 views
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Wrap-up

In this tutorial, you've begun to use GAWK, the GNU Project's open source implementation of the AWK programming language. You've learned the rudiments of the AWK programming language -- including how to run and structure programs and basic operations, such as field and record manipulation and pattern matching. There's a lot more to learn -- AWK is truly one of the great UNIX power tools -- but even at your first exposure, you've been able to feel the power of the AWK language as a tool for text manipulation.