Awk Tutorial

AWK
AWK
About the Tutorial

This tutorial takes you through AWK, one of the most prominent text-processing utility
on GNU/Linux. It is very powerful and uses simple programming language. It can
solve complex text processing tasks with a few lines of code.
Starting with an overview of AWK, its environment, and workflow, the tutorial
proceeds to explain the syntax, variables, operators, arrays, loops, and functions used
in AWK. It also covers topics such as output redirection and pretty printing.
Audience
This tutorial will be useful for software developers, system administrators, or any
enthusiastic reader inclined to learn how to do text processing and data extraction in
Unix-like environment.
Prerequisites
You must have a basic understanding of GNU/Linux operating system and shell
scripting.
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AWK
Table of Contents
About the Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................. i
Audience ............................................................................................................................................................ i
Prerequisites ...................................................................................................................................................... i
Copyright & Disclaimer ...................................................................................................................................... i
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................. ii
1. OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................... 1
Types of AWK.................................................................................................................................................... 1
Typical Uses of AWK ......................................................................................................................................... 1
2. AWK ENVIRONMENT.................................................................................................................... 2
Installation Using Package Manager ................................................................................................................. 2
Installation from Source Code ........................................................................................................................... 2
3. AWK WORKFLOW ........................................................................................................................ 4

Program Structure ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Example ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
4. BASIC SYNTAX .............................................................................................................................. 7

AWK Command Line ......................................................................................................................................... 7
AWK Program File ............................................................................................................................................. 7
AWK Standard Options ..................................................................................................................................... 8
5. BASIC EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................................ 13

Printing Column or Field ................................................................................................................................. 13
Printing All Lines ............................................................................................................................................. 13
Printing Columns by Pattern ........................................................................................................................... 14
Printing Column in Any Order ......................................................................................................................... 14
Counting and Printing Matched Pattern .......................................................................................................... 14
ii
AWK
Printing Lines with More than 18 Characters .................................................................................................. 15
6. BUILT-IN VARIABLES ................................................................................................................... 16

Standard AWK Variables ................................................................................................................................. 16
GNU AWK Specific Variables ........................................................................................................................... 20
7. OPERATORS ............................................................................................................................... 23
Arithmetic Operators ...................................................................................................................................... 23
Increment and Decrement Operators ............................................................................................................. 24
Assignment Operators .................................................................................................................................... 25
Relational Operators ....................................................................................................................................... 27
Logical Operators ............................................................................................................................................ 29
Ternary Operator ............................................................................................................................................ 30
Unary Operators ............................................................................................................................................. 31
Exponential Operators .................................................................................................................................... 31
String Concatenation Operator ....................................................................................................................... 32
Array Membership Operator........................................................................................................................... 32
Regular Expression Operators ......................................................................................................................... 32
8. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS ............................................................................................................. 34

Dot .................................................................................................................................................................. 34
Start of Line .................................................................................................................................................... 34
End of Line ...................................................................................................................................................... 34
Match Character Set ....................................................................................................................................... 35
Exclusive Set ................................................................................................................................................... 35
Alteration ....................................................................................................................................................... 35
Zero or One Occurrence .................................................................................................................................. 36
Zero or More Occurrence ................................................................................................................................ 36
One or More Occurrence ................................................................................................................................ 36
Grouping ......................................................................................................................................................... 37
iii
AWK
9. ARRAYS ...................................................................................................................................... 38
Creating Array ................................................................................................................................................. 38
Deleting Array Elements ................................................................................................................................. 38
Multi-Dimensional Arrays ............................................................................................................................... 39
10. CONTROL FLOW ......................................................................................................................... 41

If Statement .................................................................................................................................................... 41
If-Else Statement ............................................................................................................................................ 41
If-Else-If Ladder ............................................................................................................................................... 42
11. LOOPS ........................................................................................................................................ 43

For Loop .......................................................................................................................................................... 43
While Loop ...................................................................................................................................................... 43
Do-While Loop ................................................................................................................................................ 44
Break Statement ............................................................................................................................................. 44
Continue Statement ........................................................................................................................................ 45
Exit Statement ................................................................................................................................................ 46
12. BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS ................................................................................................................. 47

Arithmetic Functions ....................................................................................................................................... 47
String Functions .............................................................................................................................................. 51
Time Functions................................................................................................................................................ 57
Bit Manipulation Functions ............................................................................................................................. 60
Miscellaneous Functions ................................................................................................................................. 62
13. USER-DEFINED FUNCTIONS........................................................................................................ 68

14. OUTPUT REDIRECTION ............................................................................................................... 70
Redirection Operator ...................................................................................................................................... 70
Append Operator ............................................................................................................................................ 70
Pipe................................................................................................................................................................. 71
iv
AWK
Two-Way Communication ............................................................................................................................... 71
15. PRETTY PRINTING....................................................................................................................... 73

Escape Sequences ........................................................................................................................................... 73
Format Specifier.............................................................................................................................................. 75
Optional Parameters with % ........................................................................................................................... 78
1. OVERVIEW
AWK
AWK is an interpreted programming language. It is very powerful and specially

designed for text processing. Its name is derived from the family names of its authors
Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan.
The version of AWK that GNU/Linux distributes is written and maintained by the Free
Software Foundation (FSF); it is often referred to as GNU AWK.
Types of AWK
Following are the variants of AWK:
AWK - Original AWK from AT & T Laboratory.
NAWK - Newer and improved version of AWK from AT & T Laboratory.
GAWK - It is GNU AWK. All GNU/Linux distributions ship GAWK. It is fully compatible
with AWK and NAWK.
Typical Uses of AWK

Myriad of tasks can be done with AWK. Listed below are just a few of them:
Text processing
Producing formatted text reports
Performing arithmetic operations
Performing string operations, and many more
2. AWK ENVIRONMENT
AWK
This chapter describes how to set up the AWK environment on your GNU/Linux
system.
Installation Using Package Manager

Generally, AWK is available by default on most GNU/Linux distributions. You can
use which command to check whether it is present on your system or not. In case
you dont have AWK, then install it on Debian based GNU/Linux using Advance
Package Tool (APT) package manager as follows:
[jeryy]$ sudo apt-get update
[jeryy]$ sudo apt-get install gawk
Similarly, to install AWK on RPM based GNU/Linux, use Yellowdog Updator
Modifier (YUM) package manager as follows:
[root]# yum install gawk
After installation, ensure that AWK is accessible via command line.
[jerry]$ which awk
On executing the above code, you get the following result:
/usr/bin/awk
Installation from Source Code

As GNU AWK is a part of the GNU project, its source code is available for free
download. We have already seen how to install AWK using package manager. Let us
now understand how to install AWK from its source code.
The following installation is applicable to any GNU/Linux software, and for most other
freely-available programs as well. Here are the installation steps:
Step 1 - Download the source code from an authentic place. The command-line
utility wget serves this purpose.
[jerry]$ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-4.1.1.tar.xz
AWK
Step 2 - Decompress and extract the downloaded source code.

[jerry]$ tar xvf gawk-4.1.1.tar.xz
Step 3 - Change into the directory and run configure.
[jerry]$ ./configure
Step 4 - Upon successful completion, the configure generates Makefile. To compile
the source code, execute a make command.
[jerry]$ make
Step 5 - You can run the test suite to ensure the build is clean. This is an optional
step.
[jerry]$ make check
Step 6 - Finally, install AWK. Make sure you have super-user privileges.
[jerry]$ sudo make install
That is it! You have successfully compiled and installed AWK. Verify it by executing
the awk command as follows:
[jerry]$ which awk
On executing this code, you get the following result:
/usr/bin/awk
3. AWK WORKFLOW
AWK
To become an expert AWK programmer, you need to know its internals. AWK follows
a simple workflow: Read, Execute, and Repeat. The following diagram depicts the
workflow of AWK:
Read
AWK reads a line from the input stream (file, pipe, or stdin) and stores it in memory.
Execute
All AWK commands are applied sequentially on the input. By default, AWK executes
commands on every line. We can restrict this by providing patterns.
Repeat
This process repeats until the file reaches its end.
AWK
Program Structure
Let us now understand the program structure of AWK.
BEGIN Block
The syntax of the BEGIN block is as follows:
BEGIN {awk-commands}
The BEGIN block gets executed at program start-up. It executes only once. This is
good place to initialize variables. BEGIN is an AWK keyword and hence it must be in
upper-case. Please note that this block is optional.
Body Block
The syntax of the body block is as follows:
/pattern/ {awk-commands}
The body block applies AWK commands on every input line. By default, AWK executes
commands on every line. We can restrict this by providing patterns. Note that there
are no keywords for the Body block.
END Block
The syntax of the END block is as follows:
END {awk-commands}
The END block executes at the end of the program. END is an AWK keyword and hence
it must be in upper-case. Please note that this block is optional.
Example
Let us create a file marks.txt which contains the serial number, name of the student,
subject name, and number of marks obtained.
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
Let us now display the file contents with header by using AWK script.
5
AWK
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN{printf "Sr No\tName\tSub\tMarks\n"} {print}' marks.txt

When this code is executed, it produces the following result:
Sr No Name
Sub
Marks
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
At the start, AWK prints the header from the BEGIN block. Then in the body block, it
reads a line from a file and executes AWK's print command which just prints the
contents on the standard output stream. This process repeats until file reaches the
end.
4. BASIC SYNTAX
AWK
AWK is simple to use. We can provide AWK commands either directly from the
command line or in the form of a text file containing AWK commands.
AWK Command Line

We can specify an AWK command within single quotes at command line as shown:
awk [options] file ...
Example
Consider a text file marks.txt with following content:
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
Let us display the complete content of the file using AWK as follows:
[jerry]$ awk '{print}' marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
AWK Program File

We can provide AWK commands in a script file as shown:
awk [options] -f file ....
AWK
First, create a text file command.awk containing the AWK command as shown below:
{print}
Now we can instruct the AWK to read commands from the text file and perform the
action. Here, we achieve the same result as shown in the above example.
[jerry]$ awk -f command.awk marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
AWK Standard Options

AWK supports the following standard options which can be provided from the
command line.
The -v Option
This option assigns a value to a variable. It allows assignment before the program
execution. The following example describes the usage of the -v option.
[jerry]$ awk -v name=Jerry 'BEGIN{printf "Name = %s\n", name}'
Name = Jerry
The --dump-variables[=file] Option

It prints a sorted list of global variables and their final values to file. The default file
is awkvars.out.
[jerry]$ awk --dump-variables ''
[jerry]$ cat awkvars.out
ARGC: 1
ARGIND: 0
8
AWK
ARGV: array, 1 elements

BINMODE: 0
CONVFMT: "%.6g"
ERRNO: ""
FIELDWIDTHS: ""
FILENAME: ""
FNR: 0
FPAT: "[^[:space:]]+"
FS: " "
IGNORECASE: 0
LINT: 0
NF: 0
NR: 0
OFMT: "%.6g"
OFS: " "
ORS: "\n"
RLENGTH: 0
RS: "\n"
RSTART: 0
RT: ""
SUBSEP: "\034"
TEXTDOMAIN: "messages"
The --help Option

This option prints the help message on standard output.
[jerry]$ awk --help

Usage: awk [POSIX or GNU style options] -f progfile [--] file ...
Usage: awk [POSIX or GNU style options] [--] 'program' file ...
POSIX options:
GNU long options: (standard)
-f progfile
--file=progfile
-F fs
--field-separator=fs
-v var=val
--assign=var=val
9
AWK
Short options:
GNU long options: (extensions)
-b
--characters-as-bytes
-c
--traditional
-C
--copyright
-d[file]
--dump-variables[=file]
-e 'program-text' --source='program-text'
-E file
--exec=file
-g
--gen-pot
-h
--help
-L [fatal]
--lint[=fatal]
-n
--non-decimal-data
-N
--use-lc-numeric
-O
--optimize
-p[file]
--profile[=file]
-P
--posix
-r
--re-interval
-S
--sandbox
-t
--lint-old
-V
--version
The --lint[=fatal] Option

This option enables checking of non-portable or dubious constructs. When an
argument fatal is provided, it treats warning messages as errors. The following
example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk --lint '' /bin/ls
awk: cmd. line:1: warning: empty program text on command line
awk: cmd. line:1: warning: source file does not end in newline
awk: warning: no program text at all!
The --posix Option

This option turns on strict POSIX compatibility, in which all common and gawk-specific
extensions are disabled.
10
AWK
The --profile[=file] Option

This option generates a pretty-printed version of the program in a file. The default file
is awkprof.out. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk --profile 'BEGIN{printf"---|Header|--\n"} {print} END{printf"--|Footer|---\n"}' marks.txt > /dev/null
[jerry]$ cat awkprof.out
# gawk profile, created Sun Oct 26 19:50:48 2014
# BEGIN block(s)
BEGIN {
printf "---|Header|--\n"
}
# Rule(s)
{
print $0
}
# END block(s)
END {
printf "---|Footer|---\n"
}
The --traditional Option

This option disables all gawk-specific extensions.
The --version Option

This option displays the version information of the AWK program.
[jerry]$ awk --version
When this code is executed, it produces the following result:
GNU Awk 4.0.1
11
AWK
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991-2012 Free Software Foundation.
12
5. BASIC EXAMPLES
AWK
This chapter describes several useful AWK commands and their appropriate examples.
Consider a text file marks.txt to be processed with the following content:
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
Printing Column or Field

You can instruct AWK to print only certain columns from the input field. The following
[jerry]$ awk '{print $3 "\t" $4}' marks.txt
Physics
80
Maths
90
Biology
87
English
85
History
89
In the file marks.txt, the third column contains the subject name and the
fourth column contains the marks obtained in a particular subject. Let us print these
two columns using AWK print command. In the above example, $3 and $4 represent
the third and the fourth fields respectively from the input record.
Printing All Lines

By default, AWK prints all the lines that match pattern.
[jerry]$ awk '/a/ {print $0}' marks.txt
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
13
AWK
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
In the above example, we are searching form pattern a. When a pattern match
succeeds, it executes a command from the body block. In the absence of a body block
- default action is taken which is print the record. Hence, the following command
produces the same result:
[jerry]$ awk '/a/' marks.txt
Printing Columns by Pattern

When a pattern match succeeds, AWK prints the entire record by default. But you can
instruct AWK to print only certain fields. For instance, the following example prints the
third and fourth field when a pattern match succeeds.
[jerry]$ awk '/a/ {print $3 "\t" $4}' marks.txt
Maths
90
Biology
87
English
85
History
89
Printing Column in Any Order

You can print columns in any order. For instance, the following example prints the
fourth column followed by the third column.
[jerry]$ awk '/a/ {print $4 "\t" $3}' marks.txt
90
Maths
87
Biology
85
English
89
History
Counting and Printing Matched Pattern

Let us see an example where you can count and print the number of lines for which a
pattern match succeeded.
14
AWK
[jerry]$ awk '/a/{++cnt} END {print "Count = ", cnt}' marks.txt

Count = 4
In this example, we increment the value of counter when a pattern match succeeds
and we print this value in the END block. Note that unlike other programming
languages, there is no need to declare a variable before using it.
Printing Lines with More than 18 Characters

Let us print only those lines that contain more than 18 characters.
[jerry]$ awk 'length($0) > 18' marks.txt
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
AWK provides a built-in length function that returns the length of the
string. $0 variable stores the entire line and in the absence of a body block, default
action is taken, i.e., the print action. Hence, if a line has more than 18 characters,
then the comparison results true and the line gets printed.
15
6. BUILT-IN VARIABLES
AWK
AWK provides several built-in variables. They play an important role while writing AWK
scripts. This chapter demonstrates the usage of built-in variables.
Standard AWK Variables

The standard AWK variables are discussed below.
ARGC
It implies the number of arguments provided at the command line.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "Arguments =", ARGC}' One Two Three Four
Arguments = 5
But why AWK shows 5 when you passed only 4 arguments? Just check the following
example to clear your doubt.
ARGV
It is an array that stores the command-line arguments. The array's valid index ranges
from 0 to ARGC-1.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { for (i = 0; i < ARGC - 1; ++i) { printf "ARGV[%d] =
%s\n", i, ARGV[i] } }' one two three four
ARGV[0] = awk
ARGV[1] = one
ARGV[2] = two
ARGV[3] = three
CONVFMT
It represents the conversion format for numbers. Its default value is %.6g.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print "Conversion Format =", CONVFMT }'
16
AWK

Conversion Format = %.6g
ENVIRON
It is an associative array of environment variables.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print ENVIRON["USER"] }'
jerry
To find names of other environment variables, use env command.
FILENAME
It represents the current file name.
[jerry]$ awk 'END {print FILENAME}' marks.txt
marks.txt
Please note that FILENAME is undefined in the BEGIN block.
FS
It represents the (input) field separator and its default value is space. You can also
change this by using -F command line option.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "FS = " FS}' | cat -vte
FS =
NF
It represents the number of fields in the current record. For instance, the following
example prints only those lines that contain more than two fields.
[jerry]$ echo -e "One Two\nOne Two Three\nOne Two Three Four" | awk 'NF > 2'
17
AWK

One Two Three
One Two Three Four
NR
It represents the number of the current record. For instance, the following example
prints the record if the current record contains less than three fields.
[jerry]$ echo -e "One Two\nOne Two Three\nOne Two Three Four" | awk 'NR < 3'

One Two
One Two Three
FNR
It is similar to NR, but relative to the current file. It is useful when AWK is operating
on multiple files. Value of FNR resets with new file.
OFMT
It represents the output format number and its default value is %.6g.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "OFMT = " OFMT}'
OFMT = %.6g
OFS
It represents the output field separator and its default value is space.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "OFS = " OFS}' | cat -vte
OFS =
ORS
It represents the output record separator and its default value is newline.
18
AWK
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "ORS = " ORS}' | cat -vte

ORS = $
$
RLENGTH
It represents the length of the string matched by match function. AWK's match
function searches for a given string in the input-string.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { if (match("One Two Three", "re")) { print RLENGTH } }'

2
RS
It represents (input) record separator and its default value is newline.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "RS = " RS}' | cat -vte
RS = $
$
RSTART
It represents the first position in the string matched by match function.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { if (match("One Two Three", "Thre")) { print RSTART } }'

9
SUBSEP
It represents the separator character for array subscripts and its default value
is \034.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print "SUBSEP = " SUBSEP }' | cat -vte
19
AWK

SUBSEP = ^\$
$0
It represents the entire input record.
[jerry]$ awk '{print $0}' marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
80
2)
Rahul
Maths
90
3)
Shyam
Biology
87
4)
Kedar
English
85
5)
Hari
History
89
$n
It represents the nth field in the current record where the fields are separated by FS.
[jerry]$ awk '{print $3 "\t" $4}' marks.txt
Physics
80
Maths
90
Biology
87
English
85
History
89
GNU AWK Specific Variables

GNU AWK specific variables are as follows:
ARGIND
It represents the index in ARGV of the current file being processed.
[jerry]$ awk '{ print "ARGIND
= ", ARGIND; print "Filename = ",
ARGV[ARGIND] }' junk1 junk2 junk3
20
AWK

ARGIND
Filename =
junk1
ARGIND
Filename =
junk2
ARGIND
Filename =
junk3
BINMODE
It is used to specify binary mode for all file I/O on non-POSIX systems. Numeric values
of 1, 2, or 3 specify that input files, output files, or all files, respectively, should use
binary I/O. String values of r or w specify that input files or output files, respectively,
should use binary I/O. String values of rw or wr specify that all files should use binary
I/O.
ERRNO
A string indicates an error when a redirection fails for getline or if close call fails.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { ret = getline < "junk.txt"; if (ret == -1) print
"Error:", ERRNO }'
Error: No such file or directory
FIELDWIDTHS
A space separated list of field widths variable is set, GAWK parses the input into fields
of fixed width, instead of using the value of the FS variable as the field separator.
IGNORECASE
When this variable is set, GAWK becomes case-insensitive. The following example
demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN{IGNORECASE=1} /amit/' marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
80
21
AWK
LINT
It provides dynamic control of the --lint option from the GAWK program. When this
variable is set, GAWK prints lint warnings. When assigned the string value fatal, lint
warnings become fatal errors, exactly like --lint=fatal.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {LINT=1; a}'
awk: cmd. line:1: warning: reference to uninitialized variable `a'
awk: cmd. line:1: warning: statement has no effect
PROCINFO
This is an associative array containing information about the process, such as real and
effective UID numbers, process ID number, and so on.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print PROCINFO["pid"] }'
4316
TEXTDOMAIN
It represents the text domain of the AWK program. It is used to find the localized
translations for the program's strings.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print TEXTDOMAIN }'
messages
The above output shows English text due to en_IN locale.
22
7. OPERATORS
AWK
Like other programming languages, AWK also provides a large set of operators. This
chapter explains AWK operators with suitable examples.
Arithmetic Operators
AWK supports the following arithmetic operators:
Addition
It is represented by plus (+) symbol which adds two or more numbers. The following
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 50; b = 20; print "(a + b) = ", (a + b) }'
(a + b) =
70
Subtraction
It is represented by minus (-) symbol which subtracts two or more numbers. The
following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 50; b = 20; print "(a - b) = ", (a - b) }'
(a - b) =
30
Multiplication
It is represented by asterisk (*) symbol which multiplies two or more numbers. The
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 50; b = 20; print "(a * b) = ", (a * b) }'
(a * b) =
1000
23
AWK
Division
It is represented by slash (/) symbol which divides two or more numbers. The
following example illustrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 50; b = 20; print "(a / b) = ", (a / b) }'
(a / b) =
2.5
Module
It is represented by percent (%) symbol which finds the module division of two or
more numbers. The following example illustrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 50; b = 20; print "(a % b) = ", (a % b) }'
(a % b) =
10
Increment and Decrement Operators

AWK supports the following increment and decrement operators:
Pre-Increment
It is represented by ++. It increments the value of an operand by 1. This operator
first increments the value of the operand, then returns the incremented value. For
instance, in the following example, this operator sets the value of both the operands,
a and b, to 11.
awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = ++a; printf "a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b }'
a = 11, b = 11
Pre-Decrement
It is represented by --. It decrements the value of an operand by 1. This operator first
decrements the value of the operand, then returns the decremented value. For
instance, in the following example, this operator sets the value of both the operands,
a and b, to 9.
24
AWK
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = --a; printf "a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b }'
a = 9, b = 9
Post-Increment
It is represented by ++. It increments the value of an operand by 1. This operator
first returns the value of the operand, then it increments its value. For instance, the
following code sets the value of operand a to 11 and b to 10.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = a++; printf "a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b }'
a = 11, b = 10
Post-Decrement
It is represented by --. It decrements the value of an operand by 1. This operator first
returns the value of the operand, then it decrements its value. For instance, the
following code sets the value of the operand a to 9 and b to 10.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = a--; printf "a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b }'
a = 9, b = 10
Assignment Operators
AWK supports the following assignment operators:
Simple Assignment
It is represented by =. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { name = "Jerry"; print "My name is", name }'
My name is Jerry
25
AWK
Shorthand Addition
It is represented by +=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=10; cnt += 10; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 20
In the above example, the first statement assigns value 10 to the variable cnt. In the
next statement, the shorthand operator increments its value by 10.
Shorthand Subtraction
It is represented by -=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=100; cnt -= 10; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 90
In the above example, the first statement assigns value 100 to the variable cnt. In
the next statement, the shorthand operator decrements its value by 10.
Shorthand Multiplication
It is represented by *=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=10; cnt *= 10; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 100
In the above example, the first statement assigns value 10 to the variable cnt. In the
next statement, the shorthand operator multiplies its value by 10.
Shorthand Division
It is represented by /=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=100; cnt /= 5; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 20
26
AWK
In the above example, the first statement assigns value 100 to the variable cnt. In
the next statement, the shorthand operator divides it by 5.
Shorthand Modulo
It is represented by %=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=100; cnt %= 8; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 4
Shorthand Exponential
It is represented by ^=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=2; cnt ^= 4; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 16
The above example raises the value of cnt by 4.
Shorthand Exponential
It is represented by **=. The following example demonstrates this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { cnt=2; cnt **= 4; print "Counter =", cnt }'
Counter = 16
This example also raises the value of cnt by 4.
Relational Operators
AWK supports the following relational operators:
Equal to
It is represented by ==. It returns true if both operands are equal, otherwise it returns
false. The following example demonstrates this:
awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 10; if (a == b) print "a == b" }'
27
AWK

a == b
Not Equal to
It is represented by !=. It returns true if both operands are unequal, otherwise it
returns false.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 20; if (a != b) print "a != b" }'
a != b
Less Than
It is represented by <. It returns true if the left-side operand is less than the rightside operand; otherwise it returns false.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 20; if (a < b) print "a < b" }'
a < b
Less Than or Equal to

It is represented by <=. It returns true if the left-side operand is less than or equal
to the right-side operand; otherwise it returns false.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 10; if (a <= b) print "a <= b" }'
a <= b
Greater Than
It is represented by >. It returns true if the left-side operand is greater than the rightside operand, otherwise it returns false.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 20; if (b > a ) print "b > a" }'
28
AWK

b > a
Greater Than or Equal to

It is represented by >=. It returns true if the left-side operand is greater than or equal
to the right-side operand; otherwise it returns false.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 10; if (a >= b) print "a >= b" }'
b >= a
Logical Operators
AWK supports the following logical operators:
Logical AND
It is represented by &&. Its syntax is as follows:
expr1 && expr2
It evaluates to true if both expr1 and expr2 evaluate to true; otherwise it returns
false. expr2 is evaluated if and only if expr1 evaluates to true. For instance, the
following example checks whether the given single digit number is in octal format or
not.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {num = 5; if (num >= 0 && num <= 7) printf "%d is in
octal format\n", num }'
5 is in octal format
Logical OR
It is represented by ||. The syntax of Logical OR is:
expr1 || expr2
It evaluates to true if either expr1 or expr2 evaluates to true; otherwise it returns
false. expr2 is evaluated if and only if expr1 evaluates to false. The following example
demonstrates this:
29
AWK
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {ch = "\n"; if (ch == " " || ch == "\t" || ch == "\n")
print "Current character is whitespace." }'
Current character is whitespace.
Logical NOT
It is represented by exclamation mark (!). The following example demonstrates
this:
! expr1
It returns the logical compliment of expr1. If expr1 evaluates to true, it returns 0;
otherwise it returns 1. For instance, the following example checks whether a string is
empty or not.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { name = ""; if (! length(name)) print "name is empty
string." }'
name is empty string.
Ternary Operator
We can easily implement a condition expression using ternary operator. The following
condition expression ? statement1 : statement2
When the condition expression returns true, statement1 gets executed; otherwise
statement2 is executed. For instance, the following example finds the largest number
from two given numbers.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; b = 20; (a > b) ? max = a : max = b; print
"Max =", max}'
Max = 20
30
AWK
Unary Operators
AWK supports the following unary operators:
Unary Plus
It is represented by +. It multiplies a single operand by +1.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = -10; a = +a; print "a =", a }'
a = -10
Unary Minus
It is represented by -. It multiplies a single operand by -1.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = -10; a = -a; print "a =", a }'
a = 10
Exponential Operators
There are two formats of exponential operators:
Exponential Format 1
It is an exponential operator that raises the value of an operand. For instance, the
following example raises the value of 10 by 2.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; a = a ^ 2; print "a =", a }'
a = 100
Exponential Format 2
It is an exponential operator that raises the value of an operand. For instance, the
following example raises the value of 10 by 2.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { a = 10; a = a ** 2; print "a =", a }'
31
AWK

a = 100
String Concatenation Operator

Space is a string concatenation operator that merges two strings. The following
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { str1="Hello, "; str2="World"; str3 = str1 str2; print
str3 }'
Hello, World
Array Membership Operator

It is represented by in. It is used while accessing array elements. The following
example prints array elements using this operator.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { arr[0] = 1; arr[1] = 2; arr[2] = 3; for (i in arr)
printf "arr[%d] = %d\n", i, arr[i] }'
arr[0] = 1
arr[1] = 2
arr[2] = 3
Regular Expression Operators

This example explains the two forms of regular expressions operators.
Match
It is represented as ~. It looks for a field that contains the match string. For instance,
the following example prints the lines that contain the pattern 9.
[jerry]$ awk '$0 ~ 9' marks.txt
32
AWK

2)
Rahul Maths 90
5)
Hari
History
89
Not Match
It is represented as !~. It looks for a field that does not contain the match string. For
instance, the following example prints the lines that do not contain the pattern 9.
[jerry]$ awk '$0 !~ 9' marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
80
3)
Shyam Biology
87
4)
Kedar English
85
33
8. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
AWK
AWK is very powerful and efficient in handling regular expressions. A number of

complex tasks can be solved with simple regular expressions. Any command-line
expert knows the power of regular expressions.
This chapter covers standard regular expressions with suitable examples.
Dot
It matches any single character except the end of line character. For instance, the
following example matches fin, fun, fan, etc.
[jerry]$ echo -e "cat\nbat\nfun\nfin\nfan" | awk '/f.n/'
fun
fin
fan
Start of Line
It matches the start of line. For instance, the following example prints all the lines
that start with pattern The.
[jerry]$ echo -e "This\nThat\nThere\nTheir\nthese" | awk '/^The/'
There
Their
End of Line
It matches the end of line. For instance, the following example prints the lines that
end with the letter n.
[jerry]$ echo -e "knife\nknow\nfun\nfin\nfan\nnine" | awk '/n$/'
34
AWK

fun
fin
fan
Match Character Set

It is used to match only one out of several characters. For instance, the following
example matches pattern Call and Tall but not Ball.
[jerry]$ echo -e "Call\nTall\nBall" | awk '/[CT]all/'
Call
Tall
Exclusive Set
In exclusive set, the carat negates the set of characters in the square brackets. For
instance, the following example prints only Ball.
[jerry]$ echo -e "Call\nTall\nBall" | awk '/[^CT]all/'
Ball
Alteration
A vertical bar allows regular expressions to be logically ORed. For instance, the
following example prints Ball and Call.
[jerry]$ echo -e "Call\nTall\nBall\nSmall\nShall" | awk '/Call|Ball/'
Call
Ball
35
AWK
Zero or One Occurrence

It matches zero or one occurrence of the preceding character. For instance, the
following example matches Colour as well as Color. We have made u as an optional
character by using ?.
[jerry]$ echo -e "Colour\nColor" | awk '/Colou?r/'
Colour
Color
Zero or More Occurrence

It matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding character. For instance, the
following example matches ca, cat, catt, and so on.
[jerry]$ echo -e "ca\ncat\ncatt" | awk '/cat*/'
ca
cat
catt
One or More Occurrence

It matches one or more occurrences of the preceding character. For instance, the
following example matches one or more occurrences of 2.
[jerry]$ echo -e "111\n22\n123\n234\n456\n222"
| awk '/2+/'

22
123
234
222
36
AWK
Grouping
Parentheses () are used for grouping and the character | is used for alternatives.
For instance, the following regular expression matches the lines containing
either Apple Juice or Apple Cake.
[jerry]$ echo -e "Apple Juice\nApple Pie\nApple Tart\nApple Cake" | awk
'/Apple (Juice|Cake)/'
Apple Juice
Apple Cake
37
9. ARRAYS
AWK
AWK has associative arrays and one of the best thing about it is the indexes need
not to be continuous set of number; you can use either string or number as an array
index. Also, there is no need to declare the size of an array in advance arrays can
expand/shrink at runtime.
Its syntax is as follows:
array_name[index]=value
Where array_name is the name of array, index is the array index, and value is any
value assigning to the element of the array.
Creating Array
To gain more insight on array, let us create and access the elements of an array.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {
fruits["mango"]="yellow";
fruits["orange"]="orange"
print fruits["orange"] "\n" fruits["mango"]
}'
orange
yellow
In the above example, we declare the array as fruits whose index is fruit name and
the value is the color of the fruit. To access array elements, we use
array_name[index] format.
Deleting Array Elements

For insertion, we used assignment operator. Similarly, we can use delete statement
to remove an element from the array. The syntax of delete statement is as follows:
delete array_name[index]
38
AWK
The following example deletes the element orange. Hence the command does not
show any output.
fruits["mango"]="yellow";
fruits["orange"]="orange";
delete fruits["orange"];
print fruits["orange"]
}'
Multi-Dimensional Arrays
AWK only supports one-dimensional arrays. But you can easily simulate a multidimensional array using the one-dimensional array itself.
For instance, given below is a 3x3 three-dimensional array:
100 200 300
400 500 600
700 800 900
In the above example, array[0][0] stores 100, array[0][1] stores 200, and so on. To
store 100 at array location [0][0], we can use the following syntax:
array["0,0"] = 100
Though we gave 0,0 as index, these are not two indexes. In reality, it is just one index
with the string 0,0.
The following example simulates a 2-D array:
array["0,0"] = 100;
array["0,1"] = 200;
array["0,2"] = 300;
array["1,0"] = 400;
array["1,1"] = 500;
array["1,2"] = 600;
# print array elements
print "array[0,0] = " array["0,0"];
39
AWK

}'
array[0,0] = 100
array[0,1] = 200
array[0,2] = 300
array[1,0] = 400
array[1,1] = 500
array[1,2] = 600
You can also perform a variety of operations on an array such as sorting its
elements/indexes. For that purpose, you can use assort and asorti functions.
40
10. CONTROL FLOW
AWK
Like other programming languages, AWK provides conditional statements to control

the flow of a program. This chapter explains AWK's control statements with suitable
examples.
If Statement
It simply tests the condition and performs certain actions depending upon the
condition. Given below is the syntax of if statement:
if (condition)
action
We can also use a pair of curly braces as given below to execute multiple actions:
if (condition)
{
action-1
action-1
.
.
action-n
}
For instance, the following example checks whether a number is even or not:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {num = 10; if (num % 2 == 0) printf "%d is even
number.\n", num }'
10 is even number.
If-Else Statement
In if-else syntax, we can provide a list of actions to be performed when a condition
becomes false.
41
AWK
The syntax of if-else statement is as follows:

if (condition)
action-1
else
action-2
In the above syntax, action-1 is performed when the condition evaluates to true and
action-2 is performed when the condition evaluates to false. For instance, the following
example checks whether a number is even or not:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {num = 11; if (num % 2 == 0) printf "%d is even
number.\n", num; else printf "%d is odd number.\n", num }'
11 is odd number.
If-Else-If Ladder
We can easily create an if-else-if ladder by using multiple if-else statements. The
a=30;
if (a==10)
print "a = 10";
else if (a == 20)
print "a = 20";
else if (a == 30)
print "a = 30";
}'
a = 30
42
11. LOOPS
AWK
This chapter explains AWK's loops with suitable example. Loops are used to execute
a set of actions in a repeated manner. The loop execution continues as long as the
loop condition is true.
For Loop
The syntax of for loop is:
for (initialisation; condition; increment/decrement)
action
Initially, the for statement performs initialization action, then it checks the condition.
If the condition is true, it executes actions, thereafter it performs increment or
decrement operation. The loop execution continues as long as the condition is true.
For instance, the following example prints 1 to 5 using for loop:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { for (i = 1; i <= 5; ++i) print i }'
1
2
3
4
5
While Loop
The while loop keeps executing the action until a particular logical condition evaluates
to true. Here is the syntax of while loop:
while (condition)
action
AWK first checks the condition; if the condition is true, it executes the action. This
process repeats as long as the loop condition evaluates to true. For instance, the
following example prints 1 to 5 using while loop:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {i = 1; while (i < 6) { print i; ++i } }'
43
AWK

1
2
3
4
5
Do-While Loop
The do-while loop is similar to the while loop, except that the test condition is
evaluated at the end of the loop. Here is the syntax of do-while loop:
do
action
while (condition)
In a do-while loop, the action statement gets executed at least once even when the
condition statement evaluates to false. For instance, the following example prints 1 to
5 numbers using do-while loop:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {i = 1; do { print i; ++i } while (i < 6) }'
1
2
3
4
5
Break Statement
As its name suggests, it is used to end the loop execution. Here is an example which
ends the loop when the sum becomes greater than 50.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {sum = 0; for (i = 0; i < 20; ++i) { sum += i; if (sum
> 50) break; else print "Sum =", sum } }'
44
AWK

Sum = 0
Sum = 1
Sum = 3
Sum = 6
Sum = 10
Sum = 15
Sum = 21
Sum = 28
Sum = 36
Sum = 45
Continue Statement
The continue statement is used inside a loop to skip to the next iteration of the loop.
It is useful when you wish to skip the processing of some data inside the loop. For
instance, the following example uses continue statement to print the even numbers
between 1 to 20.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {for (i = 1; i <= 20; ++i) {if (i % 2 == 0) print i ;
else continue} }'
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
45
AWK
Exit Statement
It is used to stop the execution of the script. It accepts an integer as an argument
which is the exit status code for AWK process. If no argument is supplied, exit returns
status zero. Here is an example that stops the execution when the sum becomes
greater than 50.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {sum = 0; for (i = 0; i < 20; ++i) { sum += i; if (sum
> 50) exit(10); else print "Sum =", sum } }'
Sum = 0
Sum = 1
Sum = 3
Sum = 6
Sum = 10
Sum = 15
Sum = 21
Sum = 28
Sum = 36
Sum = 45
Let us check the return status of the script.
[jerry]$ echo $?
10
46
12. BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS
AWK
AWK has a number of functions built into it that are always available to the
programmer. This chapter describes Arithmetic, String, Time, Bit manipulation, and
other miscellaneous functions with suitable examples.
Arithmetic Functions
AWK has the following built-in arithmetic functions:
atan2(y, x)
It returns the arctangent of (y/x) in radians. The following example demonstrates
this:
PI = 3.14159265
x = -10
y = 10
result = atan2 (y,x) * 180 / PI;
printf "The arc tangent for (x=%f, y=%f) is %f degrees\n", x, y, result

}'
The arc tangent for (x=-10.000000, y=10.000000) is 135.000000 degrees
cos(expr)
This function returns the cosine of expr, which is expressed in radians. The following
PI = 3.14159265
param = 60
result = cos(param * PI / 180.0);
printf "The cosine of %f degrees is %f.\n", param, result

47
AWK
}'
The cosine of 60.000000 degrees is 0.500000.
exp(expr)
This function is used to find the exponential value of a variable.
param = 5
result = exp(param);
printf "The exponential value of %f is %f.\n", param, result

}'
The exponential value of 5.000000 is 148.413159.
int(expr)
This function truncates the expr to an integer value. The following example
demonstrates this:
param = 5.12345
result = int(param)
print "Truncated value =", result

}'
Truncated value = 5
log(expr)
This function calculates the natural logarithm of a variable.
48
AWK
param = 5.5
result = log (param)
printf "log(%f) = %f\n", param, result

}'
log(5.500000) = 1.704748
rand
This function returns a random number N, between 0 and 1, such that 0 <= N < 1.
For instance, the following example generates three random numbers:
print "Random num1 =" , rand()
}'
Random num1 = 0.237788
sin(expr)
This function returns the sine of expr, which is expressed in radians. The following
PI = 3.14159265
param = 30.0
result = sin(param * PI /180)
printf "The sine of %f degrees is %f.\n", param, result

}'
49
AWK

The sine of 30.000000 degrees is 0.500000.
sqrt(expr)
This function returns the square root of expr.
param = 1024.0
result = sqrt(param)
printf "sqrt(%f) = %f\n", param, result

}'
sqrt(1024.000000) = 32.000000
srand([expr])
This function generates a random number using seed value. It uses expr as the new
seed for the random number generator. In the absence of expr, it uses the time of
day as the seed value.
param = 10
printf "srand() = %d\n", srand()

printf "srand(%d) = %d\n", param, srand(param)
}'
srand() = 1
srand(10) = 1417959587
50
AWK
String Functions
AWK has the following built-in String functions:
asort(arr [, d [, how] ])
This function sorts the contents of arr using GAWK's normal rules for comparing
values, and replaces the indexes of the sorted values arr with sequential integers
starting with 1.
arr[0] = "Three"
arr[1] = "One"
arr[2] = "Two"
print "Array elements before sorting:"

for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
asort(arr)
print "Array elements after sorting:"

for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
}'
Array elements before sorting:
Three
One
Two
Array elements after sorting:
One
Three
Two
51
AWK
asorti(arr [, d [, how] ])
The behavior of this function is the same as that of asort(), except that the array
indexes are used for sorting.
arr["Two"] = 1
arr["One"] = 2
arr["Three"] = 3
asorti(arr)
print "Array indices after sorting:"

for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
}'
Array indices after sorting:
One
Three
Two
gsub(regex, sub, string)

gsub stands for global substitution. It replaces every occurrence of sub with regex.
The third parameter is optional. If it is omitted, then $0 is used.
str = "Hello, World"
print "String before replacement = " str
gsub("World", "Jerry", str)
print "String after replacement = " str

}'
52
AWK

String before replacement = Hello, World
String after replacement = Hello, Jerry
index(str, sub)
It checks whether sub is a substring of str or not. On success, it returns the position
where sub starts; otherwise it returns 0. The first character of str is at position 1.
str = "One Two Three"
subs = "Two"
ret = index(str, subs)
printf "Substring \"%s\" found at %d location.\n", subs, ret

}'
Substring "Two" found at 5 location.
length(str)
It returns the length of a string.
str = "Hello, World !!!"
print "Length = ", length(str)

}'
Length = 16
match(str, regex)
It returns the index of the first longest match of regex in string str. It returns 0 if no
match found.
53
AWK

str = "One Two Three"
subs = "Two"
ret = match(str, subs)
printf "Substring \"%s\" found at %d location.\n", subs, ret
}'
Substring "Two" found at 5 location.
split(str, arr, regex)

This function splits the string str into fields by regular expression regex and the fields
are loaded into the array arr. If regex is omitted, then FS is used.
str = "One,Two,Three,Four"
split(str, arr, ",")
print "Array contains following values"
for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
}'
Array contains following values
One
Two
Three
Four
sprintf(format, expr-list)
This function returns a string constructed from expr-list according to format.
str = sprintf("%s", "Hello, World !!!")
54
AWK
print str
}'
Hello, World !!!
strtonum(str)
This function examines str and return its numeric value. If str begins with a leading
0, it is treated as an octal number. If str begins with a leading 0x or 0X, it is taken as
a hexadecimal number. Otherwise, assume it is a decimal number.
print "Decimal num = " strtonum("123")
print "Octal num = " strtonum("0123")
print "Hexadecimal num = " strtonum("0x123")
}'
Decimal num = 123
Octal num = 83
Hexadecimal num = 291
sub(regex, sub, string)

This function performs single substitution. It replaces the first occurrence of sub with
regex. The third parameter is optional. If it is omitted, $0 is used.
str = "Hello, World"
print "String before replacement = " str
sub("World", "Jerry", str)
print "String after replacement = " str
}'
55
AWK

String before replacement = Hello, World
String after replacement = Hello, Jerry
substr(str, start, l)
This function returns the substring of string str, starting at index start of length l. If
length is omitted, the suffix of str starting at index start is returned.
str = "Hello, World !!!"
subs = substr(str, 1, 5)
print "Substring = " subs

}'
Substring = Hello
tolower(str)
This function returns a copy of string str with all upper-case characters converted to
lower-case.
str = "HELLO, WORLD !!!"
print "Lowercase string = " tolower(str)

}'
Lowercase string = hello, world !!!
toupper(str)
This function returns a copy of string str with all lower-case characters converted to
upper case.
56
AWK

str = "hello, world !!!"
print "Uppercase string = " toupper(str)
}'
Uppercase string = HELLO, WORLD !!!
Time Functions
AWK has the following built-in time functions:
systime
This function returns the current time of the day as the number of seconds since the
Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC on POSIX systems).
print "Number of seconds since the Epoch = " systime()
}'
Number of seconds since the Epoch = 1418574432
mktime(datespec)
This function converts datespec string into a timestamp of the same form as returned
by systime(). The datespec is a string of the form YYYY MM DD HH MM SS.
print "Number of seconds since the Epoch = " mktime("2014 12 14 30 20 10")
}'
Number of seconds since the Epoch = 1418604610
57
AWK
strftime([format [, timestamp[, utc-flag]]])

This function formats timestamps according to the specification in format.
print strftime("Time = %m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S", systime())
}'
Time = 12/14/2014 22:08:42
The following time formats are supported by AWK:
Description
Date format
specification
%a
The locales abbreviated weekday name.
%A
The locales full weekday name.
%b
The locales abbreviated month name.
%B
The locales full month name.
%c
The locales appropriate date and time representation. (This is %A

%B %d %T %Y in the C locale.)
%C
The century part of the current year. This is the year divided by 100
and truncated to the next lower integer.
%d
The day of the month as a decimal number (0131).
%D
Equivalent to specifying %m/%d/%y.
%e
The day of the month, padded with a space if it is only one digit.
%F
Equivalent to specifying %Y-%m-%d. This is the ISO 8601 date

format.
%g
The year modulo 100 of the ISO 8601 week number, as a decimal
number (0099). For example, January 1, 1993 is in week 53 of
1992. Thus, the year of its ISO 8601 week number is 1992, even
though its year is 1993. Similarly, December 31, 1973 is in week 1
of 1974. Thus, the year of its ISO week number is 1974, even
though its year is 1973.
%G
The full year of the ISO week number, as a decimal number.
%h
Equivalent to %b.
%H
The hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0023).

58
AWK
%I
The hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (0112).
%j
The day of the year as a decimal number (001366).
%m
The month as a decimal number (0112).
%M
The minute as a decimal number (0059).
%n
A newline character (ASCII LF).
%p
The locales equivalent of the AM/PM designations associated with a

12-hour clock.
%r
The locales 12-hour clock time. (This is %I:%M:%S %p in the C

locale.)
%R
Equivalent to specifying %H:%M.
%S
The second as a decimal number (0060).
%t
A TAB character.
%T
Equivalent to specifying %H:%M:%S.
%u
The weekday as a decimal number (17). Monday is day one.
%U
The week number of the year (the first Sunday as the first day of
week one) as a decimal number (0053).
%V
The week number of the year (the first Monday as the first day of
%w
The weekday as a decimal number (06). Sunday is day zero.
%W
The week number of the year (the first Monday as the first day of
%x
The locales appropriate date representation. (This is %A %B %d

%Y in the C locale.)
%X
The locales appropriate time representation. (This is %T in the C

locale.)
%y
The year modulo 100 as a decimal number (0099).
%Y
The full year as a decimal number (e.g. 2011).
%z
The time-zone offset in a +HHMM format (e.g., the format

necessary to produce RFC 822/RFC 1036 date headers).
%Z
The time zone name or abbreviation; no characters if no time zone

is determinable.
59
AWK
Bit Manipulation Functions

AWK has the following built-in bit manipulation functions:
and
Performs bitwise AND operation.
num1 = 10
num2 = 6
printf "(%d AND %d) = %d\n", num1, num2, and(num1, num2)

}'
(10 AND 6) = 2
compl
It performs bitwise COMPLEMENT operation.
num1 = 10
printf "compl(%d) = %d\n", num1, compl(num1)

}'
compl(10) = 9007199254740981
lshift
It performs bitwise LEFT SHIFT operation.
num1 = 10
printf "lshift(%d) by 1 = %d\n", num1, lshift(num1, 1)
}'
60
AWK
lshift(10) by 1 = 20
rshift
It performs bitwise RIGHT SHIFT operation.
num1 = 10
printf "rshift(%d) by 1 = %d\n", num1, rshift(num1, 1)
}'
rshift(10) by 1 = 5
or
It performs bitwise OR operation.
num1 = 10
num2 = 6
printf "(%d OR %d) = %d\n", num1, num2, or(num1, num2)
}'
(10 OR 6) = 14
xor
It performs bitwise XOR operation.
num1 = 10
num2 = 6
printf "(%d XOR %d) = %d\n", num1, num2, xor(num1, num2)
}'

61
AWK
(10 bitwise xor 6) = 12
Miscellaneous Functions
AWK has the following miscellaneous functions:
close(expr)
This function closes file of pipe.
cmd = "tr [a-z] [A-Z]"
print "hello, world !!!" |& cmd
close(cmd, "to")
cmd |& getline out
print out;
close(cmd);
}'
HELLO, WORLD !!!
Does the script look cryptic? Let us demystify it.
The first statement, cmd = "tr [a-z] [A-Z]" - is the command to which we
establish the two way communication from AWK.
The next statement, i.e., the print command, provides input to the tr
command. Here &| indicates two-way communication.
The third statement, i.e., close(cmd, "to"), closes the to process after
competing its execution.
The next statement cmd |& getline out stores the output into out variable
with the aid of getline function.
The next print statement prints the output and finally the close function closes
the command.
delete
This function deletes an element from an array. The following example shows the
usage of the close function:
62
AWK

arr[0] = "One"
arr[1] = "Two"
arr[2] = "Three"
arr[3] = "Four"
print "Array elements before delete operation:"

for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
delete arr[0]
delete arr[1]
print "Array elements after delete operation:"

for (i in arr) {
print arr[i]
}
}'
Array elements before delete operation:
One
Two
Three
Four
Array elements after delete operation:

Three
Four
exit
This function stops the execution of a script. It also accepts an optional expr which
becomes AWK's return value. The following example describes the usage of exit
function.
63
AWK

print "Hello, World !!!"
exit 10
print "AWK never executes this statement."

}'
Hello, World !!!
fflush
This function flushes any buffers associated with open output file or pipe. The following
syntax demonstrates the function.
fflush([output-expr])
If no output-expr is supplied, it flushes the standard output. If output-expr is the null
string (""), then it flushes all open files and pipes.
getline
This function instructs AWK to read the next line. The following example reads and
displays the marks.txt file using getline function.
[jerry]$ awk '{getline; print $0}' marks.txt
2)
Rahul Maths 90
4)
Kedar English
85
5)
Hari
89
History
The script works fine. But where is the first line? Let us find out.
At the start, AWK reads the first line from the file marks.txt and stores it
into $0 variable.
In the next statement, we instructed AWK to read the next line using getline. Hence
AWK reads the second line and stores it into $0 variable.
And finally, AWK's print statement prints the second line. This process continues until
the end of the file.
64
AWK
next
The next function changes the flow of the program. It causes the current processing
of the pattern space to stop. The program reads the next line, and starts executing
the commands again with the new line. For instance, the following program does not
perform any processing when a pattern match succeeds.
[jerry]$ awk '{if ($0 ~/Shyam/) next; print $0}' marks.txt
1)
Amit
Physics
2)
Rahul Maths 90
4)
Kedar English
85
5)
Hari
89
History
80
nextfile
The nextfile function changes the flow of the program. It stops processing the current
input file and starts a new cycle through pattern/procedures statements, beginning
with the first record of the next file. For instance, the following example stops
processing the first file when a pattern match succeeds.
First create two files. Let us say file1.txt contains:
file1:str1
file1:str2
file1:str3
file1:str4
And file2.txt contains:
file2:str1
file2:str2
file2:str3
file2:str4
Now let us use the nextfile function.

[jerry]$ awk '{ if ($0 ~ /file1:str2/) nextfile; print $0 }' file1.txt
file2.txt
65
AWK
file1:str1
file2:str1
file2:str2
file2:str3
file2:str4
return
This function can be used within a user-defined function to return the value. Please
note that the return value of a function is undefined if expr is not provided. The
following example describes the usage of the return function.
First, create a functions.awk file containing AWK command as shown below:
function addition(num1, num2)
{
result = num1 + num2
return result
}
BEGIN {
res = addition(10, 20)
print "10 + 20 = " res
}
10 + 20 = 30
system
This function executes the specified command and returns its exit status. A return
status 0 indicates that a command execution has succeeded. A non-zero value
indicates a failure of command execution. For instance, the following example displays
the current date and also shows the return status of the command.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { ret = system("date"); print "Return value = " ret }'
Sun Dec 21 23:16:07 IST 2014
66
AWK
Return value = 0
67
13. USER-DEFINED FUNCTIONS
AWK
Functions are basic building blocks of a program. AWK allows us to define our own
functions. A large program can be divided into functions and each function can be
written/tested independently. It provides re-usability of code.
Given below is the general format of a user-defined function:
function function_name(argument1, argument2, ...)
{
function body
}
In this syntax, the function_name is the name of the user-defined function. Function
name should begin with a letter and the rest of the characters can be any combination
of numbers, alphabetic characters, or underscore. AWK's reserve words cannot be
used as function names.
Functions can accept multiple arguments separated by comma. Arguments are not
mandatory. You can also create a user-defined function without any argument.
function body consists of one or more AWK statements.
Let us write two functions that calculate the minimum and the maximum number and
call these functions from another function called main. The functions.awk file
contains:
# Returns minimum number
function find_min(num1, num2)
{
if (num1 < num2)
return num1
return num2
}
# Returns maximum number

function find_max(num1, num2)
{
if (num1 > num2)
return num1
68
AWK
return num2
}
# Main function
function main(num1, num2)
{
# Find minimum number
result = find_min(10, 20)
print "Minimum =", result
# Find maximum number

result = find_max(10, 20)
print "Maximum =", result
}
# Script execution starts here

BEGIN {
main(10, 20)
}
Minimum = 10
Maximum = 20
69
14. OUTPUT REDIRECTION
AWK
So far, we displayed data on standard output stream. We can also redirect data to a
file. A redirection appears after the print or printf statement. Redirections in AWK are
written just like redirection in shell commands, except that they are written inside the
AWK program. This chapter explains redirection with suitable examples.
Redirection Operator
The syntax of the redirection operator is:
print DATA > output-file
It writes the data into the output-file. If the output-file does not exist, then it creates
one. When this type of redirection is used, the output-file is erased before the first
output is written to it. Subsequent write operations to the same output-file do not
erase the output-file, but append to it. For instance, the following example
writes Hello, World !!! to the file.
Let us create a file with some text data.
[jerry]$ echo "Old data" > /tmp/message.txt
[jerry]$ cat /tmp/message.txt
Old data
Now let us redirect some contents into it using AWK's redirection operator.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print "Hello, World !!!" > "/tmp/message.txt" }'
Hello, World !!!
Append Operator
The syntax of append operator is as follows:
print DATA >> output-file
70
AWK
It appends the data into the output-file. If the output-file does not exist, then it
creates one. When this type of redirection is used, new contents are appended at the
end of file. For instance, the following example appends Hello, World !!! to the file.
Let us create a file with some text data.
[jerry]$ echo "Old data" > /tmp/message.txt
Old data
Now let us append some contents to it using AWK's append operator.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print "Hello, World !!!" >> "/tmp/message.txt" }'
Old data
Hello, World !!!
Pipe
It is possible to send output to another program through a pipe instead of using a file.
This redirection opens a pipe to command, and writes the values of items through this
pipe to another process to execute the command. The redirection argument command
is actually an AWK expression. Here is the syntax of pipe:
print items | command
Let us use tr command to convert lowercase letters to uppercase.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { print "hello, world !!!" | "tr [a-z] [A-Z]" }'
HELLO, WORLD !!!
Two-Way Communication
AWK can communicate to an external process using |&, which is two-way
communication. For instance, the following example uses tr command to convert
lowercase letters to uppercase. Our command.awk file contains:
71
AWK
BEGIN {
cmd = "tr [a-z] [A-Z]"
print "hello, world !!!" |& cmd
close(cmd, "to")
cmd |& getline out
print out;
close(cmd);
}
HELLO, WORLD !!!
Does the script look cryptic? Let us demystify it.
The first statement, cmd = "tr [a-z] [A-Z]", is the command to which we
establish the two-way communication from AWK.
The next statement, i.e., the print command provides input to the tr command.
Here &| indicates two-way communication.
The third statement, i.e., close(cmd, "to"), closes the to process after
competing its execution.
The next statement cmd |& getline out stores the output into out variable
with the aid of getline function.
The next print statement prints the output and finally the close function closes
the command.
72
15. PRETTY PRINTING
AWK
So far, we have used AWK's print and printf functions to display data on standard
output. But the printf function is much more efficient. This function has been borrowed
from the C language and it is very helpful while producing formatted output. Here is
the syntax of the printf statement:
printf fmt, expr-list
In the above syntax, fmt is a string of format specifications and constants. expr-list is
a list of arguments corresponding to format specifiers.
Escape Sequences
Similar to any string, format can contain embedded escape sequences. Discussed
below are the escape sequences supported by AWK:
New Line
The following example prints Hello and World in separate lines using newline
character:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Hello\nWorld\n" }'
Hello
World
Horizontal Tab
The following example uses horizontal tab to display different field:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Sr No\tName\tSub\tMarks\n" }'
Sr No
Name
Sub Marks
73
AWK
Vertical Tab
The following example uses vertical tab after each filed:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Sr No\vName\vSub\vMarks\n" }'
Sr No
Name
Sub
Marks
Backspace
The following example prints a backspace after every field except the last one. It
erases the last number from the first three fields. For instance, Field 1 is displayed
as Field, because the last character is erased with backspace. However, the last
field Field 4 is displayed as it is, as we did not have a \b after Field 4.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Field 1\bField 2\bField 3\bField 4\n" }'
Field Field Field Field 4
Carriage Return
In the following example, after printing every field, we do a Carriage Return and
print the next value on top of the current printed value. It means, in the final output,
you can see only Field 4, as it was the last thing to be printed on top of all the
previous fields.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Field 1\rField 2\rField 3\rField 4\n" }'
Field 4
Form Feed
The following example uses form feed after printing each field.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Sr No\fName\fSub\fMarks\n" }'
74
AWK

Sr No
Name
Sub
Marks
Format Specifier
As in C-language, AWK also has format specifiers. The AWK version of the printf
statement accepts the following conversion specification formats:
%c
It prints a single character. If the argument used for %c is numeric, it is treated as a
character and printed. Otherwise, the argument is assumed to be a string, and the
only first character of that string is printed.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "ASCII value 65 = character %c\n", 65 }'
ASCII value 65 = character A
%d and %i
It prints only the integer part of a decimal number.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %d\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 80
%e and %E
It prints a floating point number of the form [-]d.dddddde[+-]dd.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %E\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 8.066000e+01
75
AWK
The %E format uses E instead of e.

[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %e\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 8.066000E+01
%f
It prints a floating point number of the form [-]ddd.dddddd.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %f\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 80.660000
%g and %G
Uses %e or %f conversion, whichever is shorter, with non-significant zeros
suppressed.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %g\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 80.66
The %G format uses %E instead of %e.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %G\n", 80.66 }'
Percentages = 80.66
%o
It prints an unsigned octal number.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Octal representation of decimal number 10 =
%o\n", 10}'
Octal representation of decimal number 10 = 12
76
AWK
%u
It prints an unsigned decimal number.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Unsigned 10 = %u\n", 10 }'
Unsigned 10 = 10
%s
It prints a character string.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Name = %s\n", "Sherlock Holmes" }'
Name = Sherlock Holmes
%x and %X
It prints an unsigned hexadecimal number. The %X format uses uppercase letters
instead of lowercase.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Hexadecimal representation of decimal number
15 = %x\n", 15}'
Hexadecimal representation of decimal number 15 = f
Now let use %X and observe the result:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Hexadecimal representation of decimal number
15 = %X\n", 15}'
Hexadecimal representation of decimal number 15 = F
%%
It prints a single % character and no argument is converted.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Percentages = %d%%\n", 80.66 }'
77
AWK

Percentages = 80%
Optional Parameters with %

With %, we can use the following optional parameters:
Width
The field is padded to the width. By default, the field is padded with spaces but when
0 flag is used, it is padded with zeroes.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { num1 = 10; num2 = 20; printf "Num1 = %10d\nNum2 =
%10d\n", num1, num2 }'
Num1 =
10
Num2 =
20
Leading Zeros
A leading zero acts as a flag, which indicates that the output should be padded with
zeroes instead of spaces. Please note that this flag only has an effect when the field
is wider than the value to be printed. The following example describes this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { num1 = -10; num2 = 20; printf "Num1 = %05d\nNum2 =
%05d\n", num1, num2 }'
Num1 = -0010
Num2 = 00020
Left Justification
The expression should be left-justified within its field. When the input-string is less
than the number of characters specified, and you want it to be left justified, i.e., by
adding spaces to the right, use a minus symbol () immediately after the % and before
the number.
In the following example, output of the AWK command is piped to the cat command
to display the END OF LINE($) character.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { num = 10; printf "Num = %-5d\n", num }' | cat -vte
78
AWK

Num = 10
Prefix Sign
It always prefixes numeric values with a sign, even if the value is positive.
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { num1 = -10; num2 = 20; printf "Num1 = %+d\nNum2 =
%+d\n", num1, num2 }'
Num1 = -10
Num2 = +20
Hash
For %o, it supplies a leading zero. For %x and %X, it supplies a leading 0x or 0X
respectively, only if the result is non-zero. For %e, %E, %f, and %F, the result always
contains a decimal point. For %g and %G, trailing zeros are not removed from the
result. The following example describes this:
[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN { printf "Octal representation = %#o\nHexadecimal
representation = %#X\n", 10, 10}'
Octal representation = 012
Hexadecimal representation = 0XA
79

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AWK

About the Tutorial

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3. AWK WORKFLOW ........................................................................................................................ 4

4. BASIC SYNTAX .............................................................................................................................. 7

5. BASIC EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................................ 13

Printing Lines with More than 18 Characters .................................................................................................. 15

6. BUILT-IN VARIABLES ................................................................................................................... 16

8. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS ............................................................................................................. 34

10. CONTROL FLOW ......................................................................................................................... 41

11. LOOPS ........................................................................................................................................ 43

12. BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS ................................................................................................................. 47

13. USER-DEFINED FUNCTIONS........................................................................................................ 68

Two-Way Communication ............................................................................................................................... 71

15. PRETTY PRINTING....................................................................................................................... 73

AWK is an interpreted programming language. It is very powerful and specially

Typical Uses of AWK

Producing formatted text reports

Performing arithmetic operations

Performing string operations, and many more

Installation Using Package Manager

Installation from Source Code

Step 2 - Decompress and extract the downloaded source code.

[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN{printf "Sr No\tName\tSub\tMarks\n"} {print}' marks.txt

AWK Command Line

AWK Program File

AWK Standard Options

The --dump-variables[=file] Option

ARGV: array, 1 elements

The --help Option

On executing this code, you get the following result:

GNU long options: (standard)

GNU long options: (extensions)

The --lint[=fatal] Option

The --posix Option

The --profile[=file] Option

The --traditional Option

The --version Option

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991-2012 Free Software Foundation.

Printing Column or Field

Printing All Lines

Printing Columns by Pattern

Printing Column in Any Order

Counting and Printing Matched Pattern

[jerry]$ awk '/a/{++cnt} END {print "Count = ", cnt}' marks.txt

Printing Lines with More than 18 Characters

Standard AWK Variables

On executing this code, you get the following result:

On executing this code, you get the following result:

On executing this code, you get the following result:

[jerry]$ awk 'BEGIN {print "ORS = " ORS}' | cat -vte

On executing this code, you get the following result:

On executing this code, you get the following result:

On executing this code, you get the following result:

GNU AWK Specific Variables

On executing this code, you get the following result:

Increment and Decrement Operators

On executing this code, you get the following result:

Less Than or Equal to

On executing the above code, you get the following result: