AWK

Description #

AWK is a text-processing and pattern-matching language used in Unix-based systems to extract and manipulate structured data from files or streams.

History #

AWK was created in 1977 at Bell Labs by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the name “AWK” is an acronym of their surnames). It was designed as a powerful one-liner language for pattern-action statements and became a core utility in Unix toolchains.

Hello World Code #

BEGIN { print "Hello, World!" }

How to Run #

Option 1: Online
https://awk.js.org/

Option 2: Local
AWK is pre-installed on most Unix/Linux/macOS systems.

To run:

awk 'BEGIN { print "Hello, World!" }'

Or save in a file:

awk -f hello.awk

Key Concepts #

• Pattern-action language for text processing
• Line-by-line input scanning
• Interpreted, with single-pass execution
• Uses associative arrays and built-in variables
• Automatically splits input into fields
• Regular expression support
• Frequently used in shell scripts and pipelines
• Includes gawk (GNU AWK) for extended features
• Loosely typed and highly concise
• Functional and declarative programming styles supported

Try It Online #

https://awk.js.org

Fun Facts #

• AWK laid the foundation for languages like Perl.
• Often used in combination with grep, sed, and bash for data wrangling.
• Still used extensively for log parsing, ETL scripts, and quick analytics in Unix environments.

Resources #

GNU AWK Manual
AWK Tutorial (Griffiths & Dougherty)
Online AWK Runner
GitHub GAWK Source