awk

Awk is a pattern-matching and processing language with which you can write programs for common data manipulation. Awk distinguishes itself by being able to process files line-by-line, match patterns on a line's fields, and perform an action for each match. It is especially useful in data reformatting tasks such as changing or deleting patterns in text files.

URLs:

• Awk Programming Language
• Catalog of Compilers: Awk
• Catalog of Compilers: GNU Awk (gawk)
• Gawk Manual
• Yahoo! Computers and Internet: Languages: Awk

Print Resources:

• sed & awk, 1st Edition, Dale Dougherty, O'Reilly and Associates, 1990 (ISBN 0-937175-59-5).

Detail:

First released in 1977, the Awk programming language takes its name from the initials of its developers Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan. A later version of Awk, released in 1985, combined the original pattern-matching with more complex features such as the ability to handle more than one input file, dynamic regular expressions, and user-defined functions.

Awk is a powerful tool for people who create and edit text files. Most of the things you can do with Awk are also possible with a text editor. However, Awk is considerably more efficient and can save hours of time that you might otherwise spend doing repetitive work.