Programming with awk

Abstract

The awk program, which processes files that contain either text or numerical data, allows you to rearrange fields, perform arithmetic operations, and retrieve lines selectively, using programming statements that resemble those used in C. You can use it to set up a spreadsheet in UNIX or to generate reports from files already stored in the system. (The name awk is derived from the names of its originators: Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan.)