The simplest awk command line is:

awk 'program' datafile

The awk program is enclosed in single-quote or apostrophe (') characters. The datafile argument gives the name of the data file. For example:

awk '$1 == "Linda"' hobbies

executes the program:

$1 == "Linda"

on the data file hobbies.

If you are using the z/OS® shell, you can type in a multiline program within single quotation marks, as in:

awk '
   $1 == "Linda"
   $2 == "bridge" { print $1 }
   ' hobbies

awk assumes that blanks or horizontal tabs separate fields in a record. If the data file uses different field separator characters, you must indicate this on the command line. You can do this with an option of the form:

–Fstring

where string lists the characters used to separate fields. For example:

awk –F":" '{ print $3 }' file.dat

indicates that the given data file uses colon (:) characters to separate record fields. The –F option must come before the quoted program instructions.