AWK is a general purpose programming language that is designed for processing text-based data, either in files or data streams, and was created at Bell Labs in the 1970s

I noticed that Erik Wendelin wrote an article “awk is a beautiful tool.” In this article he said that it was best to introduce Awk with practical examples. I totally agree with Erik.

Eric Pement’s Awk one-liner collection consists of five sections:

• 1. File spacing,
• 2. Numbering and calculations,
• 3. Text conversion and substitution,
• 4. Selective printing of certain lines,
• 5. Selective deleting of certain lines.

The first part of the article will explain the first two sections: “File spacing” and “Numbering and calculations.” The second part will explain “Text conversion and substitution”, and the last part “Selective printing/deleting of certain lines.” Continue reading »