awk

awk - pattern-directed scanning and processing language

References

man awk
http://www.runoob.com
- Command : http://www.runoob.com/linux/linux-comm-awk.html
- Work Principles : http://www.runoob.com/w3cnote/awk-work-principle.html
- Built-in Functions : http://www.runoob.com/w3cnote/awk-built-in-functions.html
http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/software-technology/difference-between-gawk-and-awk/

Synopsis

awk [ -F fs ] [ -v var=value ] [ 'prog' | -f progfile ] [ file ...  ]

Description

awk scans each input file for lines that match any of a set of patterns specified literally in prog or in one or more files specified as -f progfile.
- With each pattern there can be an associated action that will be performed when a line of a file matches the pattern.
- Each line is matched against the pattern portion of every pattern-action statement;
  - the associated action is performed for each matched pattern.
- The file name - means the standard input.
- Any file of the form var=value is treated as an assignment, not a filename, and is executed at the time it would have been opened if it were a filename.
- The option -v followed by var=value is an assignment to be done before prog is executed; any number of -v options may be present.
- The -F fs option defines the input field separator to be the regular expression fs.

Separator

An input line is normally made up of fields separated by white space, or by regular expression FS.
- The fields are denoted $1, $2, ..., while $0 refers to the entire line.
- If FS is null, the input line is split into one field per character.

Pattern-Action

A pattern-action statement has the form :

pattern { action }

A missing { action } means print the line; a missing pattern always matches.
- Pattern-action statements are separated by newlines or semicolons.
An action is a sequence of statements.
- A statement can be one of the following:

if( expression ) statement [ else statement ]
while( expression ) statement
for( expression ; expression ; expression ) statement
for( var in array ) statement
do statement while( expression )
break
continue
{ [ statement ... ] }
expression              # commonly var = expression
print [ expression-list ] [ > expression ]
printf format [ , expression-list ] [ > expression ]
return [ expression ]
next                    # skip remaining patterns on this input line
nextfile                # skip rest of this file, open next, start at top
delete array[ expression ]# delete an array element
delete array            # delete all elements of array
exit [ expression ]     # exit immediately; status is expression

Statements are terminated by semicolons, newlines or right braces.
- An empty expression-list stands for $0.
- String constants are quoted " ", with the usual C escapes recognized within.

Expresion

Expressions take on string or numeric values as appropriate ( 视情况而定 ) , and are built using the operators + - * / % ^ (exponentiation), and concatenation (indicated by white space).
- The operators ! ++ -- += -= *= /= %= ^= > >= < <= == != ?: are also available in expressions.
- Variables may be scalars, array elements (denoted x[i]) or fields.
- Variables are initialized to the null string.
- Array subscripts may be any string, not necessarily numeric; this allows for a form of associative memory.
- Multiple subscripts such as [i,j,k] are permitted; the constituents are concatenated, separated by the value of SUBSEP.
The print statement prints its arguments on the standard output (or on a file if >file or >>file is present or on a pipe if |cmd is present), separated by the current output field separator, and terminated by the output record separator.
- file and cmd may be literal names or parenthesized expressions; identical string values in different statements denote the same open file.
- The printf statement formats its expression list according to the format.
- The built-in function close(expr) closes the file or pipe expr.
- The built-in function fflush(expr) flushes any buffered output for the file or pipe expr.
The mathematical functions exp, log, sqrt, sin, cos, and atan2 are built in. Other built-in functions:
- length the length of its argument taken as a string, or of $0 if no argument.
- rand random number on (0,1)
- srand sets seed for rand and returns the previous seed.
- int truncates to an integer value
- substr(s, m, n) the n-character substring of s that begins at position m counted from 1.
- index(s, t) the position in s where the string t occurs, or 0 if it does not.
- match(s, r) the position in s where the regular expression r occurs, or 0 if it does not.
  - The variables RSTART and RLENGTH are set to the position and length of the matched string.
- split(s, a, fs) splits the string s into array elements a[1], a[2], ..., a[n], and returns n.
  - The separation is done with the regular expression fs or with the field separator FS if fs is not given.
  - An empty string as field separator splits the string into one array element per character.
- sub(r, t, s) substitutes t for the first occurrence of the regular expression r in the string s.
  - If s is not given, $0 is used.
- gsub same as sub except that all occurrences of the regular expression are replaced;
  - sub and gsub return the number of replacements.
- sprintf(fmt, expr, ... ) the string resulting from formatting expr ... according to the printf(3) format fmt
- system(cmd) executes cmd and returns its exit status
- tolower(str) returns a copy of str with all upper-case characters translated to their corresponding lower-case equivalents.
- toupper(str) returns a copy of str with all lower-case characters translated to their corresponding upper-case equivalents.
The "function" getline sets $0 to the next input record from the current input file; getline <file sets $0 to the next record from file.
- getline x sets variable x instead.
- Finally, cmd | getline pipes the output of cmd into getline; each call of getline returns the next line of output from cmd.
- In all cases, getline returns 1 for a successful input, 0 for end of file, and -1 for an error.
Patterns are arbitrary Boolean combinations (with ! || &&) of regular expressions and relational expressions.
- Regular expressions are as defined in re_format(7).
- Isolated regular expressions in a pattern apply to the entire line.
- Regular expressions may also occur in relational expressions, using the operators ~ and !~.
- /re/ is a constant regular expression; any string (constant or variable) may be used as a regular expression, except in the position of an isolated regular expression in a pattern.
A pattern may consist of two patterns separated by a comma;
- in this case, the action is performed for all lines from an occurrence of the first pattern though an occurrence of the second.
A relational expression is one of the following:

expression matchop regular-expression
expression relop expression
expression in array-name
(expr,expr,...) in array-name

where a relop is any of the six relational operators in C, and a matchop is either ~ (matches) or !~ (does not match).
- A conditional is an arithmetic expression, a relational expression, or a Boolean combination of these.
The special patterns BEGIN and END may be used to capture control before the first input line is read and after the last.
- BEGIN and END do not combine with other patterns.

Special Variables

Variable names with special meanings:

CONVFMT conversion format used when converting numbers (default %.6g)
FS regular expression used to separate fields; also settable by option -Ffs.
NF number of fields in the current record
NR ordinal number of the current record
FNR ordinal number of the current record in the current file
FILENAME the name of the current input file
RS input record separator (default newline)
OFS output field separator (default blank)
ORS output record separator (default newline)
OFMT output format for numbers (default %.6g)
SUBSEP separates multiple subscripts (default 034)
ARGC argument count, assignable
ARGV argument array, assignable; non-null members are taken as filenames
ENVIRON array of environment variables; subscripts are names.

Functions may be defined (at the position of a pattern-action statement) thus:

function foo(a, b, c) { ...; return x }

Parameters are passed by value if scalar and by reference if array name; functions may be called recursively.

Parameters are local to the function; all other variables are global.
Thus local variables may be created by providing excess parameters in the function definition.

Examples

Length

Print lines longer than 72 characters.

length($0) > 180

$ awk 'length($0) > 180' awk.md
- Expressions take on string or numeric values as appropriate _( 视情况而定 )_ , and are built using the operators `+ - * / % ^` (exponentiation), and concatenation (indicated by white space).
- The print statement prints its arguments on the standard output (or on a file if `>file` or `>>file` is present or on a pipe if `|cmd` is present), separated by the current output field separator, and terminated by the output record separator.
    - `/re/` is a constant regular expression; any string (constant or variable) may be used as a regular expression, except in the position of an isolated regular expression in a pattern.

Print Fields

Print first three fields in opposite order.

{ print $3, $2, $1 }

$ cat awk-example-1.txt
abc     1234    foo
defe    456     bar
icehe   777     xyz

$ awk '{ print $3, $2, $1 }' awk-example-1.txt
foo 1234 abc
bar 456 defe
xyz 777 icehe

BEGIN Statement

Same, with input fields separated by comma and/or blanks and tabs.

BEGIN { FS = ",[ \t]*|[ \t]+" }
      { print $2, $1 }

$ awk '
BEGIN { FS = ",[ \t]*|[ \t]+" }
      { print $2, $1 }
' awk-example-1.txt

# output
1234 abc
456 defe
777 icehe

END Statement

Add up first column, print sum and average.

     { s += $2 }
END  { print "sum is", s, " average is", s/NR }

$ awk '
     { s += $2 }
END  { print "sum is", s, " average is", s/NR }
' awk-example-1.txt

# output
sum is 2467  average is 616.75

Unknown

Print Pattern-Matches

Print all lines between start/stop pairs.

/start/, /stop/

$ awk '/start/, /stop/' awk-example-1.txt
# output nothing

$ cat awk-example-2.txt
start abc       1234    foo
defe    456     bar
end icehe       777     xyz

$ awk '/start/, /stop/' awk-example-2.txt
start abc       1234    foo
defe    456     bar
end icehe       777     xyz
# _( icehe : 对这个结果不够理解… )_

For Loop Statement

BEGIN     {    # Simulate echo(1)
     for (i = 1; i < ARGC; i++) printf "%s ", ARGV[i]
     printf "\n"
     exit }

$ awk '
BEGIN     {    # Simulate echo(1)
     for (i = 1; i < ARGC; i++) printf "%s ", ARGV[i]
     printf "\n"
     exit }
' awk-example-1.txt awk-example-2.txt

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

awk.md

awk.md

awk

Synopsis

Description

Separator

Pattern-Action

Expresion

Special Variables

Examples

Length

Print Fields

BEGIN Statement

END Statement

Unknown

Print Pattern-Matches

For Loop Statement

Files

awk.md

Latest commit

History

awk.md

File metadata and controls

awk

Synopsis

Description

Separator

Pattern-Action

Expresion

Special Variables

Examples

Length

Print Fields

BEGIN Statement

END Statement

Unknown

Print Pattern-Matches

For Loop Statement