AWK is an interpreted programming language. It is very powerful and specially designed for text processing. Its name is derived from the family names of its authors − Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan.
The version of AWK that GNU/Linux distributes is written and maintained by the Free Software Foundation (FSF); it is often referred to as GNU AWK.
Types of AWK
Following are the variants of AWK −
- AWK − Original AWK from AT & T Laboratory.
- NAWK − Newer and improved version of AWK from AT & T Laboratory.
- GAWK − It is GNU AWK. All GNU/Linux distributions ship GAWK. It is fully compatible with AWK and NAWK.
Typical Uses of AWK
Myriad of tasks can be done with AWK. Listed below are just a few of them −
- Text processing,
- Producing formatted text reports,
- Performing arithmetic operations,
- Performing string operations, and many more.