awk man page on NeXTSTEP

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AWK(1)									AWK(1)

NAME
       awk - pattern scanning and processing language

SYNOPSIS
       awk [ -Fc ] [ prog ] [ file ] ...

DESCRIPTION
       Awk scans each input file for lines that match any of a set of patterns
       specified in  prog.   With  each	 pattern  in  prog  there  can	be  an
       associated  action that will be performed when a line of a file matches
       the pattern.  The set of patterns may appear literally as prog, or in a
       file specified as -f file.

       Files  are  read in order; if there are no files, the standard input is
       read.  The file name `-'	 means	the  standard  input.	Each  line  is
       matched	against the pattern portion of every pattern-action statement;
       the associated action is performed for each matched pattern.

       An input line is made up of fields separated  by	 white	space.	 (This
       default	can  be	 changed  by  using  FS,  vide infra.)	The fields are
       denoted $1, $2, ... ; $0 refers to the entire line.

       A pattern-action statement has the form

	    pattern { action }

       A missing { action } means print the line;  a  missing  pattern	always
       matches.

       An  action  is a sequence of statements.	 A statement can be one of the
       following:

	    if ( conditional ) statement [ else statement ]
	    while ( conditional ) statement
	    for ( expression ; conditional ; expression ) statement
	    break
	    continue
	    { [ statement ] ... }
	    variable = expression
	    print [ expression-list ] [ >expression ]
	    printf format [ , expression-list ] [ >expression ]
	    next # skip remaining patterns on this input line
	    exit # skip the rest of the input

       Statements are terminated by semicolons, newlines or right braces.   An
       empty  expression-list  stands for the whole line.  Expressions take on
       string or numeric values	 as  appropriate,  and	are  built  using  the
       operators  +,  -,  *,  /, %,  and concatenation (indicated by a blank).
       The C operators ++, --, +=, -=, *=, /=, and %= 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.  String constants are quoted "...".

       The print statement prints its arguments on the standard output (or  on
       a  file	if  >file  is  present), separated by the current output field
       separator, and terminated by the output record separator.   The	printf
       statement  formats  its	expression  list  according to the format (see
       printf(3S)).

       The built-in function length returns the length of its  argument	 taken
       as  a  string,  or  of  the  whole line if no argument.	There are also
       built-in functions exp, log, sqrt, and int.   The  last	truncates  its
       argument	 to  an	 integer.   substr(s, m, n)  returns  the  n-character
       substring  of  s	  that	 begins	  at   position	  m.	The   function
       sprintf(fmt, expr, expr, ...)  formats the expressions according to the
       printf(3S) format given by fmt and returns the resulting string.

       Patterns	 are  arbitrary	 Boolean  combinations	 (!,   ||,   &&,   and
       parentheses)   of   regular  expressions	 and  relational  expressions.
       Regular expressions must be surrounded by slashes and are as in	egrep.
       Isolated	 regular  expressions  in  a pattern apply to the entire line.
       Regular expressions may also occur in relational expressions.

       A pattern may consist of two patterns separated by  a  comma;  in  this
       case,  the  action  is performed for all lines between an occurrence of
       the first pattern and the next occurrence of the second.

       A relational expression is one of the following:

	    expression matchop regular-expression
	    expression relop expression

       where a relop is any of the  six	 relational  operators	in  C,	and  a
       matchop	is  either  ~  (for contains) or !~ (for does not contain).  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 must  be
       the first pattern, END the last.

       A single character c may be used to separate the fields by starting the
       program with

	    BEGIN { FS = "c" }

       or by using the -Fc option.

       Other variable names with special meanings include NF,  the  number  of
       fields  in  the	current	 record; NR, the ordinal number of the current
       record; FILENAME, the name of the current input file; OFS,  the	output
       field  separator	 (default  blank);  ORS,  the  output record separator
       (default newline); and OFMT, the output	format	for  numbers  (default
       "%.6g").

EXAMPLES
       Print lines longer than 72 characters:

	    length > 72

       Print first two fields in opposite order:

	    { print $2, $1 }

       Add up first column, print sum and average:

		 { s += $1 }
	    END	 { print "sum is", s, " average is", s/NR }

       Print fields in reverse order:

	    { for (i = NF; i > 0; --i) print $i }

       Print all lines between start/stop pairs:

	    /start/, /stop/

       Print all lines whose first field is different from previous one:

	    $1 != prev { print; prev = $1 }

SEE ALSO
       lex(1), sed(1)
       A.  V. Aho, B. W. Kernighan, P. J. Weinberger, Awk - a pattern scanning
       and processing language

BUGS
       There are no explicit conversions  between  numbers  and	 strings.   To
       force  an expression to be treated as a number add 0 to it; to force it
       to be treated as a string concatenate "" to it.

7th Edition			April 29, 1985				AWK(1)
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