USAGE

awk [ - v var=val ] ‘program’ [file1 file2…]
awk [ - v var=val ] ‘program’ [file1 file2…]

Structure of an awk program

# comments
pattern { action }  A sequence of pattern-action statements
pattern { action }

For each file,
   For each input line,
      For each pattern,
         If pattern matches input line, do the action.

“pattern”

BEGIN :executes “action” before starting to view the input file
END :executes “action” after ending to view the input file
Other :regular, numeric or string expression or combination

“action” is executable code

if (expression) statement1 else statement2
while (expression) statement
for (expr1;expr2;expr3) statement
do statement while (expression)
break / continue :immediately leave / start next iteration of innermost enclosing loop
exit / exit expression : go immediately to the END action; if within the END action, exit program

BUILT-IN VARIABLES

Variable	Value
$0	Whole line,
$1, $2 … $NF	first, second… last field
ARGC	Number of command line arguments
ARGV	Array of command line arguments
FILENAME	Name of current input file
FS, RS	Input field / record separator (def: one space, )
NF	Number of fields in current record
NR, FNR	Number of record read so far / in current file
OFMT	Output format for numbers (default: %.6g)
OFS, ORS	Output field / rec. separator (def: one space, )
RESTART, RLENGTH	Start / Length of string matched by match function (see below)
SUBSEP	Subscript separator (default: \034)

BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS

r: regex ; s,t: strings ; n,p: integers

int(n), sqrt(n), exp(n)
log(n), sin(n), cos(n)
rand()	Random number between 0 and 1
close(file or command)

getline [var]	Read next line from input file, from a specific
getline [var] < file	file, or from a pipe
command getline [var]	Return 1 (record found), 0 (end of file), -1
	(error)
gsub(r,s)	Substitute s for r globally in $0 / string t;
gsub(r,s,t)	return # of subs made

index(s,t)	Return first position of string t in s, or 0 if t
	is not present
length(s)	Return number of characters in s
match(s,r)	Test whether s contains a substring matched by r;
	return index or 0; sets RSTART and RLENGTH
split(s,a)	Split s into array a on FS / field separaror fs;
split(s,a,fs)	return # of fields

sprintf(fmt,expr-list)	Return expr-list formatted according to format
	string fmt
sub(r,s)	Substitute s for the leftmost longest substring of
sub(r,s,t)	$0 / t matched by r; return # of subs made

substr(s,p)	Return substring of s (of length n)starting at
substr(s,p,n)	position p

tolower(s), toupper(s)	Lower and upper cases

FORMATTED OUTPUT

{ printf (“FORMAT”,value1,value2,value3,…) }

%c %s	Print as character, as string
%-8s	Print as 8 characters, left aligned
%f %6.2f	Print as float number,with 6 digits (4 as integer, 2 as decimal)
`\n`	Line feed and carriage return

OPERATORS

&& !	Logical operators. Ex: !($2<4 $3<20)
< <= == != >= >~ !~	Comparing operators matched by, not
selector?if-true-exp:if-false-exp

EXAMPLE

{ print NR, $0 }        Precede each line by line #
{ $1 = NR; print }      Replace first field by line #
{ $2 = log($2); $3 =”” ; print }
                        Replace the 2nd field by its logarithm, zap field 3
NF > 0                  Print non-empty lines
NF > 0 {print $1, $NF}  Print first field and last one of non-empty lines
$NF > 4                 Print if last field greater than 4
NR%2==0                 Print even-numbered lines
NR==10, NR==20          Print lines 10 to 20
/start/, /end /         Print lines between patterns
/regex/, EOF            Print from pattern to end of file
/regex/ {print $1}      Print first field of lines matching regex
$1 ~ /regex/            Print lines where first field matches
ORS=NR%5?”,”:”\n”       Concatenate every 5 lines of input, using comma separator
/regex/ {x++}END        Count and print the number of lines matching /regex/
{print x}
{ nc += length($0) + 1; nw += NF }
END { print NR, "lines", nw, "words", nc, "characters" }
                        wc command
{ sum += $1 }
END { print sum, sum/NR }
                        Print sum and average
{ x[NR] = $0 }
END {for (i = NR; i > 0; i--) print x[i]}
                        Reverse a file
{ a[$1] += $2 }
END { for (i in a) print (i,":",a[i]) }
                        Group by field 1, and sum field 2
function pwr(a,b) { return exp(b*log(a)) }
NF >= 2 { print pwr($1,$2) }
                        User defined function
BEGIN { RS=””; FS=”\n” }
{ print “Name: “,$1
print “Address: “,$2 }
                        Multi-line records. Leading and trailing newlines are
                        ignored

from: http://www.cheat-sheets.org/saved-copy/awk_quickref.pdf

Awk

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