Awk Cheatsheet

AWK is a powerful text processing language designed for pattern scanning and processing. It treats each input file as a collection of records, with each record divided into fields. The basic structure follows a pattern-action paradigm where AWK performs actions on lines that match specified patterns.

Pattern matching is a core feature of AWK that determines which lines to process. Patterns can be regular expressions, comparison expressions, or special patterns like BEGIN and END. When a pattern matches, AWK executes the associated action.

AWK provides powerful built-in variables that control how records and fields are processed. These variables determine how input is parsed, how output is formatted, and provide information about the current state of processing.

AWK excels at text processing tasks with its built-in functions for string manipulation, pattern matching, and formatted output. These capabilities make it powerful for transforming, extracting, and reformatting text data.

AWK excels at processing files and handling I/O operations. It can read multiple files sequentially, redirect output to files, process command output, and even handle binary data with the right techniques.