30 Examples for Awk Command in Text Processing

Mokhtar Ebrahim Last Updated On:

The awk command or GNU awk in specific provides a scripting language for text processing. With awk scripting language, you can make the following:

  • Define variables.
  • Use string and arithmetic operators.
  • Use control flow and loops.
  • Generate formatted reports.

Actually, you can process log files that contain maybe millions of lines to output a readable report that you can benefit from.

 

Table of Contents hide

 

Awk Options

The awk command is used like this:

$ awk options program file

Awk can take the following options:

-F fs     To specify a file separator.

-f file     To specify a file that contains awk script.

-v var=value     To declare a variable.

We will see how to process files and print results using awk.

 

Read AWK Scripts

To define an awk script, use braces surrounded by single quotation marks like this:

$ awk '{print "Welcome to awk command tutorial "}'

awk command

If you type anything, it returns the same welcome string we provide.

To terminate the program, press The Ctrl+D. Looks tricky, don’t panic, the best is yet to come.

 

Using Variables

With awk, you can process text files. Awk assigns some variables for each data field found:

  • $0 for the whole line.
  • $1 for the first field.
  • $2 for the second field.
  • $n for the nth field.

The whitespace character like space or tab is the default separator between fields in awk.

Check this example and see how awk processes it:

$ awk '{print $1}' myfile

awk command variables

The above example prints the first word of each line.

Sometimes the separator in some files is not space nor tab but something else. You can specify it using –F option:

$ awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd

awk command passwd

This command prints the first field in the passwd file. We use the colon as a separator because the passwd file uses it.

 

Using Multiple Commands

To run multiple commands, separate them with a semicolon like this:

$ echo "Hello Tom" | awk '{$2="Adam"; print $0}'

awk multiple commands

The first command makes the $2 field equals Adam. The second command prints the entire line.

 

Reading The Script From a File

You can type your awk script in a file and specify that file using the -f option.

Our file contains this script:

{print $1 " home at " $6}
$ awk -F: -f testfile /etc/passwd

read from file

Here we print the username and his home path from /etc/passwd, and surely the separator is specified with capital -F which is the colon.

You can your awk script file like this:

{
 
text = $1 " home at " $6
 
print text  
 
}
$ awk -F: -f testfile /etc/passwd

multiple commands

Awk Preprocessing

If you need to create a title or a header for your result or so. You can use the BEGIN keyword to achieve this. It runs before processing the data:

$ awk 'BEGIN {print "Report Title"}'

Let’s apply it to something we can see the result:

$ awk 'BEGIN {print "The File Contents:"}

{print $0}' myfile

begin command

 

Awk Postprocessing

To run a script after processing the data, use the END keyword:

$ awk 'BEGIN {print "The File Contents:"}

{print $0}

END {print "File footer"}' myfile

end command

This is useful, you can use it to add a footer for example.

Let’s combine them together in a script file:

BEGIN {

print "Users and thier corresponding home"

print " UserName \t HomePath"

print "___________ \t __________"

FS=":"

}

{

print $1 "  \t  " $6

}

END {

print "The end"

}

First, the top section is created using BEGIN keyword. Then we define the FS and print the footer at the end.

$ awk -f myscript  /etc/passwd

complete script

 

Built-in Variables

We saw the data field variables $1, $2 $3, etc are used to extract data fields, we also deal with the field separator FS.

But these are not the only variables, there are more built-in variables.

The following list shows some of the built-in variables:

FIELDWIDTHS     Specifies the field width.

RS     Specifies the record separator.

FS     Specifies the field separator.

OFS  Specifies the Output separator.

ORS  Specifies the Output separator.

By default, the OFS variable is the space, you can set the OFS variable to specify the separator you need:

$ awk 'BEGIN{FS=":"; OFS="-"} {print $1,$6,$7}' /etc/passwd

builtin variables

Sometimes, the fields are distributed without a fixed separator. In these cases, FIELDWIDTHS variable solves the problem.

Suppose we have this content:

1235.96521

927-8.3652

36257.8157
$ awk 'BEGIN{FIELDWIDTHS="3 4 3"}{print $1,$2,$3}' testfile

field width

Look at the output. The output fields are 3 per line and each field length is based on what we assigned by FIELDWIDTH exactly.

Suppose that your data are distributed on different lines like the following:

Person Name
123 High Street
(222) 466-1234

Another person
487 High Street
(523) 643-8754

In the above example, awk fails to process fields properly because the fields are separated by newlines and not spaces.

You need to set the FS to the newline (\n) and the RS to a blank text, so empty lines will be considered separators.

$ awk 'BEGIN{FS="\n"; RS=""} {print $1,$3}' addresses

field separator

Awesome! we can read the records and fields properly.

 

More Variables

There are some other variables that help you to get more information:

ARGC     Retrieves the number of passed parameters.

ARGV     Retrieves the command line parameters.

ENVIRON     Array of the shell environment variables and corresponding values.

FILENAME    The file name that is processed by awk.

NF     Fields count of the line being processed.

NR    Retrieves total count of processed records.

FNR     The record which is processed.

IGNORECASE     To ignore the character case.

Let’s test them.

$ awk 'BEGIN{print ARGC,ARGV[1]}' myfile

awk command arguments

The ENVIRON variable retrieves the shell environment variables like this:

$ awk '

BEGIN{

print ENVIRON["PATH"]

}'

data variables

You can use bash variables without ENVIRON variables like this:

$  echo | awk -v home=$HOME '{print "My home is " home}'

awk shell variables

The NF variable specifies the last field in the record without knowing its position:

$ awk 'BEGIN{FS=":"; OFS=":"} {print $1,$NF}' /etc/passwd

awk command NF

The NF variable can be used as a data field variable if you type it like this: $NF.

Let’s take a look at these two examples to know the difference between FNR and NR variables:

$ awk 'BEGIN{FS=","}{print $1,"FNR="FNR}' myfile myfile

awk command FNR

In this example, the awk command defines two input files. The same file, but processed twice. The output is the first field value and the FNR variable.

Now, check the NR variable and see the difference:

$ awk '

BEGIN {FS=","}

{print $1,"FNR="FNR,"NR="NR}

END{print "Total",NR,"processed lines"}' myfile myfile

awk command NR FNR

The FNR variable becomes 1 when comes to the second file, but the NR variable keeps its value.

 

User Defined Variables

Variable names could be anything, but it can’t begin with a number.

You can assign a variable as in shell scripting like this:

$ awk '

BEGIN{

test="Welcome to LikeGeeks website"

print test

}'

user variables

 

Structured Commands

The awk scripting language supports if conditional statement.

The testfile contains the following:

10

15

6

33

45

$ awk '{if ($1 > 30) print $1}' testfile

if command

Just that simple.

You should use braces if you want to run multiple statements:

$ awk '{

if ($1 > 30)

{

x = $1 * 3

print x

}

}' testfile

multiple statements

You can use else statements like this:

$ awk '{

if ($1 > 30)

{

x = $1 * 3

print x

} else

{

x = $1 / 2

print x

}}' testfile

awk command else

Or type them on the same line and separate the if statement with a semicolon like this:

else one line

While Loop

You can use the while loop to iterate over data with a condition.

cat myfile

124 127 130

112 142 135

175 158 245

118 231 147

$ awk '{

sum = 0

i = 1

while (i < 5)

{

sum += $i

i++

}

average = sum / 3

print "Average:",average

}' testfile

while loop

The while loop runs and every time it adds 1 to the sum variable until the i variable becomes 4.

You can exit the loop using break command like this:

 $ awk '{

tot = 0

i = 1

while (i < 5)

{

tot += $i

if (i == 3)

break

i++

}

average = tot / 3

print "Average is:",average

}' testfile

awk command break

The for Loop

The awk scripting language supports the for loops:

$ awk '{

total = 0

for (var = 1; var < 5; var++)

{

total += $var

}

avg = total / 3

print "Average:",avg

}' testfile

for loop

 

Formatted Printing

The printf command in awk allows you to print formatted output using format specifiers.

The format specifiers are written like this:

%[modifier]control-letter

This list shows the format specifiers you can use with printf:

c              Prints numeric output as a string.

d             Prints an integer value.

e             Prints scientific numbers.

f               Prints float values.

o             Prints an octal value.

s             Prints a text string.

Here we use printf to format our output:

$ awk 'BEGIN{

x = 100 * 100

printf "The result is: %e\n", x

}'

awk command printf

Here is an example of printing scientific numbers.

We are not going to try every format specifier. You know the concept.

 

Built-In Functions

Awk provides several built-in functions like:

Mathematical Functions

If you love math, you can use these functions in your awk scripts:

sin(x) | cos(x) | sqrt(x) | exp(x) | log(x) | rand()

And they can be used normally:

$ awk 'BEGIN{x=exp(5); print x}'

math functions

String Functions

There are many string functions, you can check the list, but we will examine one of them as an example and the rest is the same:

$ awk 'BEGIN{x = "likegeeks"; print toupper(x)}'

string functions

The function toupper converts character case to upper case for the passed string.

 

User Defined Functions

You can define your function and use them like this:

$ awk '

function myfunc()

{

printf "The user %s has home path at %s\n", $1,$6

}

BEGIN{FS=":"}

{

myfunc()

}' /etc/passwd

user defined functions

Here we define a function called myprint, then we use it in our script to print output using printf function.

I hope you like the post.

Thank you.

Related posts

  1. Linux AWK Index Function: Find Substrings
  2. Linux AWK system Function: Execute Shell Commands
  3. Linux AWK length function: Measure String Length
  4. Variable Scope in AWK Functions (Global & Local)
  5. Linux AWK asort() function: Guide to Array Sorting
  6. Linux awk sprintf() Function: Text Formatting Tutorial
  7. Remove Elements from Array Using Linux AWK delete
  8. Remove Leading Zeros Using Linux awk
  9. Remove Trailing Zeros Using Linux awk
  10. Remove Punctuation Characters Using Linux awk
  11. Remove Lines Between Two Patterns Using Linux awk
  12. Replace Columns in Files Using Linux awk
  13. Replace Mutliple Lines Using Linux awk: Multiline Processing
  14. Find & Replace Strings In Multiple Files Using Linux awk
  15. Split Files Using Linux awk Command
95 thoughts on “30 Examples for Awk Command in Text Processing”

  1. I can’t get the output shown on the first terminal screen shot. Is the command correct?

    edit. I get it now. Sorry for disturbing in the comments 😀

    Reply

  2. I’d like to suggest one correction, if I may. I got a little confused with the NF built-in variable, which made me read the man page for awk, and I think the NF built-in holds the “total number of fields in the ‘current input record’ ” and not ‘data file’. That made me confused a little.
    Thanks for the work!

    Reply

  3. Can I also suggest a correction ?

    >>>>>>>>
    $ echo “Hello Tom” | awk ‘{$4=”Adam”; print $0}’

    awk multiple commands
    The first command makes the $2 field equals Adam. The second command prints the entire line.
    >>>>>>>>

    The command to make $2 field equal to Adam should be awk ‘{$2=”Adam”; print $0}’

    Reply

  5. I don’t typically engage in the comments section of any website I visit, but I just had to say thank you for such an exceptionally well-written tutorial. I had initially set out to try to find someone else’s solution to a problem I was having, but after reading this I was able to figure out what I had been doing wrong to begin with.

    Reply

    1. I’m very happy with that.
      Thanks for the kind words and have wonderful rest of the weekend!

      Reply

  6. Ideally the example for awk while break program for average should run not more than 3 but in your example/output it runs more than thrice.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your comment!
      Actually, it runs 3 times only and the code breaks when the i variable equals 3 and this happens for the four lines of the file.

      Reply

  7. hello, i need help with command bash

    i want this ouput :

    Aug 05 08:54:52 Installed: perl-XML-Simple-2.14-4.fc6.noarch
    Aug 05 08:57:10 Installed: yum-utils-1.1.16-21.el5.centos.noarch
    Aug 05 14:59:19 Installed: libgcc-4.1.2-55.el5.i386
    Aug 05 14:59:19 Installed: libstdc++-4.1.2-55.el5.i386
    Aug 05 14:59:24 Installed: ncurses-5.5-24.20060715.i386
    Aug 05 14:59:25 Installed: mysql-5.0.95-5.el5_9.i386
    Aug 05 14:59:26 Installed: mysql-server-5.0.95-5.el5_9.i386

    i try command : cat /var/log/yum.log | awk ‘{ print $1, $2, $3 } print ‘Aug 05”

    but not work, with based on date, can you help me with correct command?

    Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Based on the date, you can write the following
      awk '/Aug 05/ { print $0 }' /var/log/yum.log

      Reply

  10. Great tutorial! It motivates me to learn awk.

    Question:
    How would I use awk to calculate the sum of columns of numbers?

    My text file looks like this:
    2019/04/03 150100 150105 Store
    2019/04/04 150210 150239 Gym
    2019/04/05 151290 151303 Friend’s house

    How could I use awk (or other tools) to find the total number of miles driven?

    Reply

    1. Pretty easy!
      To calculate the sum of the second column, you can do it like this:
      $ awk '{sum+=$2;}END{print sum;}' myfile
      Hope that helps.

      Reply

  12. Thank you for answering my earlier question. Your tip worked perfectly!
    Is it possible to use awk (or other linux tools) to sum columns only when they match a condition? For example, I have 2 cars I use for business travel. I want to calculate the total miles driven for Car 1 and for Car 2. Is there a way to do this ?
    Sample data file:
    Car1 2019/04/03 150100 150105 Store
    Car 2 2019/04/04 150210 150239 Gym
    Car 1 2019/04/05 151290 151303 Friend’s house

    Could I generate a statement like “total mileage for this month is 5 miles for Car 1 and 15 miles for Car 2” ?

    Reply

    1. Also easy!

      just state your condition before you calculate the sum.
      $ awk '{if($1=="Car1" || $1=="Car2" ) sum+=$3;}END{print sum;}' myfile
      This will caculate the total of Car1 and Car2.
      Now you can write your own condition based on your needs.

      Regards,

      Reply

  13. Hi! I have a question:

    How am I supposed to get the sum of only numeric values in a string?

    For example:
    If I have a string ‘ABC1234’, ‘DEF5678′,’ and I only need to take the sum of the numeric values (1234 +5678)

    Thank you!

    Reply

    1. You can extract numeric values from any string using awk like this:
      $ echo 'ABC1234' | awk -F'[^0-9]*' '$0=$2'
      Also, you can use grep which is a bit favorite in extracting things!
      $ echo 'ABC1234', 'DEF5678' | grep -o '[0-9]\+'
      Then you can do anything with the extracted numbers.

      Reply

  14. Thank you very much, Mr. Mokhtar Ebrahim.
    I have text to process but difficult to post it here. I will appreciate if I can contact you on your email.
    Thank you in advance.

    Reply

  17. Much appreciated for the effort and your follow up with every single reply, keep the great work!

    Reply

  18. Hi.. I am looking for a solution for extracting info from a text file.. the file is as follows
    VFUNC 4718 2020 770951 3187699
    0 2052
    25 2300
    50 2512
    100 2930
    VFUNC 4718 2040 770979 3187750
    0 2056
    25 2302
    50 2530
    100 2950

    My aim is to extract the 4th and 5th value from the 1st row containing 5 values and attached those values in front of the rows containing only 2 values.. my result should look like this
    770951 3187699 0 2052
    770951 3187699 25 2300
    770951 3187699 50 2512
    770951 3187699 100 2930
    770979 3187750 0 2056
    770979 3187750 25 2302
    770979 3187750 50 2530
    770979 3187750 100 2950

    Any help is highly appreciated

    Reply

    1. This code will do what you want

      NR==1 {
f4=$4
 f5=$5
}

NR>1 && NR<6{
print f4 " " f5 " " $0
}

NR>6 && NR<11{
print f4 " " f5 " " $0
}

      First, we get the fourth and fifth fields of the first row.
      Then, we bind them at the beginning of the next rows starting from the second row.
      Regards,

      Reply

  19. Mokhtar.. thanks for the help.. I was wondering how do I extend the previous code.. where I need to extract the 4th and 5th value from every nth row and concatenate those values to the rows n+1 to 2n-1.. I know you have to do a nested for loop.. I am not a programmer so any help would be appreciated. I mean to say I need to extract the 4th and 5th value from 1st row and attach it to row 2-5.. then extract the 4th and 5th value from 6th row attach it to 7-11 row and repeat the same for a large file.. Thanks for your help.. cheers

    Reply

    1. You can use the for loops as discussed on the tutorial and iterate over your lines the same way.

      Reply

  20. Hi..
    Great tutorial.
    I am looking for a solution for this dimensions in pixels from multipage pdf file to count pages of size A4,A3,A2,A1,A0.
    Supose A4= 100 pixels
    Example output is in pixels of every page:
    10×10
    5×10
    20×10
    30×10
    30×30
    50×50
    ……
    Each line number of column multiply eg. 10*10 and then divide by A4=100.

    To this point I can do this by
    awk ‘{ print ($1 * $2)/100 }’
    but then is hard for me:

    IF less than 1 that page is A4
    if grater than 1 but less than 2 then A3
    if grater than 2 but less than 4 then A2
    if grater than 4 but less than 8 then A1
    if grater than 8 but less than 16 then A0

    Output will be sum every file page format:
    A4 5
    A3 2
    A2 etc…

    help is highly appreciated.

    Reply

    1. Thanks a lot.
      Regarding your hard part, you can use if statements and increment the count for each if statement to get the total count of every page size.
      Let’s assume you have the dimensions on a variable called x.

      if(x < 1)
{
 a4 += 1
}
else if (x > 1 && x < 2)
{
 a3 += 1
}
else if (x > 2 && x < 4)
{
 a2 += 1
}
else if (x > 4 && x < 8)
{
 a1 += 1
}
else if (x > 8 && x < 16)
{
 a0 += 1
}
print "Total A4 pages: :",a4
print "Total A3 pages: :",a3
print "Total A2 pages: :",a2
print "Total A1 pages: :",a1
print "Total A0 pages: :",a0

      Hope that helps!

      Reply

  21. Hi, I am not a programmer at all. But, i am in a middle of my studies trying to convert some awk script to python for my projects. I wonder if you can help me

    Reply

    1. These are two different languages.
      You can share what lines stop you and we will try to help as much as we can.
      Regards,

      Reply

  22. Hi Mokhtar,
    This is very informative. Thanks!

    Can you help me with the below?

    My file contains:
    scirck-vccn059/properties/intgservername.txt.INCRHEAP.PRD:TransportationEventAgent 2048 2048
    scirck-vccn060/properties/agentservername.txt.INCRHEAP.PRD:SyncExportPurgeAgent 512 512
    scirck-vccn060/properties/agentservername.txt.INCRHEAP.PRD:ReleaseServer 2048 2048

    I want below output:
    scirck-vccn059,TransportationEventAgent
    scirck-vccn060,SyncExportPurgeAgent
    scirck-vccn060,ReleaseServer

    Can you help me please?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome!
      You can specify all separators you want in the FS and then set the OFS to set the comma in the output:

      $ awk ' BEGIN {FS="/|:| "; OFS=","} {print $1,$4}' myfile

      Regards,

      Reply

  23. Hello,

    Ihave a scenario where i have multiple files(more than 100) such as
    NEW_ABC0999.xyz06.d121719.t191923
    NEW_ABC0999.XYZ06.d121419.t192038

    i wanted to read only the first record of each file and add “0” at the end of first record of each file and update the file.
    Input file
    cat NEW_ABC0999.xyz06.d121719.t191923
    C01~0000000390~MI999~16~31-DEC-19~AMIPS~2219~17-DEC-19~
    M03~MI9991912170000000001~DQB~EI~3340000018322~P323B634~SP2183133~-000000001.0000~EA~
    M03~MI9991912170000000002~DQB~EI~3340000018322~P323B634~SP2183133~-000000001.0000~EA~

    expected output shouldbe

    C01~0000000390~MI999~16~31-DEC-19~AMIPS~2219~17-DEC-19~0
    M03~MI9991912170000000001~DQB~EI~3340000018322~P323B634~SP2183133~-000000001.0000~EA~
    M03~MI9991912170000000002~DQB~EI~3340000018322~P323B634~SP2183133~-000000001.0000~EA~

    Reply

  25. Tried them all. Helpful thank you. One example yields a different result than shown. Puzzled..
    robert@claire2:~/computer/awk$ more addressesMultiLines.txt
    Person Name

    123 High Street

    (222) 466-1234

    Another person

    487 High Street

    (523) 643-8754
    robert@claire2:~/computer/awk$ awk ‘BEGIN{FS=”\n”; RS=””} {print $1,$3}’ addressesMultiLines.txt
    Person Name
    123 High Street
    (222) 466-1234
    Another person
    487 High Street
    (523) 643-8754
    robert@claire2:~/computer/awk$ awk ‘BEGIN{FS=”\n”; ORS=””} {print $1,$3}’ addressesMultiLines.txt
    Person Name 123 High Street (222) 466-1234 Another person 487 High Street (523) 643-8754 robert@claire2:~/computer/awk$

    Reply

    1. The code syntax highlighter adds extra new line which is not needed in our example.
      I updated the sample data. Now everything should works as expected.
      Regards,

      Reply

  26. Duh yes! I propose that you incorporate more features in your for loop example which is the last of your control flow examples so the solution is more generic. Beem wanting to learn awk now I have some competencies with it. Regards

    awk ‘{
    total = 0
    for (var = 0; var 0)
    {
    avg = total / NF
    print “Average:”,avg
    }
    }’ myfile02

    Reply

  27. Cost pasting kinda broken trying one last time..
    awk ‘{
    total = 0
    for (var = 0; var 0)
    {
    avg = total / NF
    print “Average:”,avg
    }
    }’ myfile02

    Reply

    1. The for loop should be written like this:
      for (var = 1; var < 5; var++) { total += $var }

      Reply

  28. Hi how do i add my query here .Tried posting a query.But it didn’t show up on this page.
    For below Code there is issue with alignment
    Can u please help with below Query:

    Input file used:
    123213123; 321321331231123213213213213213213232323323232123223; 3233; kartuhalo bebas; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 23213; 3123; 321312; 321321; 32121; 321321; 333333333
    3123213123; 23213213213; 3233; kartuhelo abnomen; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 242; 4324242342; 434; 321321; 32121; 4444; 33333432
    123213123; 32132133123112321321321321321321323232332; 3233; kartuhalo bebas; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 23213; 3123; 321312; 321321; 32121; 321321; 333333333
    123213123; 321321331231123213213213213213213232323323232123223; 3233; kartuhalo bebas; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 23213; 3123; 321312; 321321; 32121; 321321; 333333333
    123213123; 32132133123112321321321321321321323232332323223; 3233; kartuhalo bebas; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 23213; 3123; 321312; 321321; 32121; 321321; 333333333
    123213123; 3213213312311232132132132132123223; 3233; kartuhalo bebas; 2020-18-20; 2020-18-20; 1; 3; 2020; 23213; 3123; 321312; 321321; 32121; 321321; 333333333

    Code:
    echo “Enter File name”
    read file_name
    echo “—————————————————INV Extract Mapped———————————————————————–”

    awk -F “;” -v cols=”BA ID; MSISDN; SOC ID; SOC Name; SOC Effective Date; SOC Termination Date; Cycle Code; Cycle Month; Cycle Year; RC Charges; Discounted RC Charges; OC Charges; Discounted OC Charges; Tiered RC Charges; Tiered Discount; Split Bill Charges” ‘
    BEGIN {
    col_count=split(cols, col_arr, “;”);
    for (i=1; i<=col_count; i++) printf col_arr[i] ((i==col_count) ? "\n" : "\t");
    }'
    awk -F ";" '
    {
    for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) printf $i ((i==NF) ? "\n" : "\t");
    }' $file_name

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      The alignment looks correct, but I think that the second field in the first row makes it bigger for your screen resolution to appear aligned.

      Reply

  29. Is there any way to provide a common fieldwidth for all columns.
    FIELDWIDTH attributes needs width to be specified to each field .Didn’t know how to give common fieldwidth to all fields in input file

    Reply

  30. Hai.. Thanks for this awesome tutorial..
    Can I get ur help to solve my issue..
    I am given 3 columns empid,name and salary separated by ‘;’ each.
    I need to output the name of the employee who has the maximum salary..
    I also need to know how to store two separate columns from the command line input (not input file) in two separate arrays.

    Thanks in Advance 🙂

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome!
      Regarding the first question, you can use sort command to sort the third column numerically and in reverse order so you can get the highest value on the top.
      Then you can pipe it to the head command to get the first row only.
      Finally, you can use awk to print the third column which is the salary in our case.
      $ sort -nrk3 -t ';' myfile | head -1 | awk 'BEGIN { FS = ";" } ; { print $3 }'
      Regarding the second question, can you specify the input exactly?

      Regards,

      Reply

  31. Using awk, how would I create a script that scans a file with names, calculates how many names start with or contain a specific letter, and then prints a line with the total number of names containing that letter?

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      You can use the index function which return zero if nothing is found and non zero is someting is found and then add them to a variable to sum the count:
      $awk ‘BEGIN{RS=”[[:space:][:punct:]]”; c=0} index($0,”a”){c++} END{print c}’ myfile

      Regards,

      Reply

    1. AWK is a powerful scripting language in text processing.
      You can do a lot with it.

      Reply

  33. Hi Mokhtar,
    Great tutorial to get the basics.
    However, I am not able to write a code in bash to find if the two input integer numbers are Amicable or not?
    could you help me with this?

    Reply

  35. hello Mokhtar

    i have below record
    cellid=10
    TA=10
    TA=5
    cellid=20
    TA=3
    TA=50
    TA=100

    and it want to be shown like below:
    cellid=10, TA=10,TA=5
    cellid=20,TA=3,TA=50,TA=100

    appreciated to help

    Reply

    1. Hi Farid,

      You can split each group of lines into separate files like this:
      $ awk '/cellid=[0-9]/{line="group"++i;}{print > line;}' test
      based on the current content, this will create 2 files called group1 and group2.
      Each file will contain the lines under it.

      Hope that helps!

      Reply

  36. hi mokhtar
    i was makes a sales.txt :

    $cat sales.txt

    FIRZA
    2222

    78

    84

    77

    MIMI

    5555

    56

    58

    45

    how i can make a script RS awk with output like this:

    $ awk -f sales.awk sales.txt

    FIRZA 2222

    MIMI 5555

    then, how to makes a script using NR so the output will be like this :
    1 FIRZA 2222 78 84 77

    2 MIMI 5555 56 58 45

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      You can extract each group into a separate file like this:
      $ awk '/[A-Z]/{line="group"++i;}{print > line;}' test

      Regards,

      Reply

  37. Hi Mokhtar,

    I am new to awk and found your tutorial extremely helpful. Thank you. Does awk have an if conditional statement with syntax to identify file extensions ?

    I have extracted a list of filenames from a floppy disk image

    grep Sounddsk2.img ls -a1 > allfilenames

    This creates a list like this

    flute.co
    flute.pt
    flute.ss
    flute.vc
    guitar.co
    guitar.pt
    guitar.ss
    guitar.vc

    Does awk have a string function that will allow me to extract a list of only the filenames ending in .ss ?

    e.g. by doing something like this

    gawk ‘{ if ($1+”.ss” is true) print $1}’ allfilenames > ssfilenames

    Reply

    1. Hi Greg,

      You can use if statement to check for file extension like this:
      $ awk -F, ‘$1 ~ /\.ss$/ {print $1}’
      This will print all lines end with ss extension.

      Regards,

      Reply

  38. File contains below rows and coulmns. I need for every row how many coulmns are available.
    1,Bhargav,560,Khammam,Telangana
    2,Srinu
    3,Pandu,890
    4,Prudhvi,780,Hyderabad

    OUTPUT :
    First Row – 5 columns
    Second Row – 2 Columns
    Third Row – 3 Columns
    Fourth Row – 4 Columns

    Could you please help me here

    Reply

    1. We can get the number of columns by getting the fields count like this:
      $ awk --field-separator="," '{print "row"$1 " " NF}' myfile

      Reply

  39. Hi Mokhtar,
    great tutorial!
    I’m just starting out with awk, I would like to know if I can use the FIELDWIDTHS command to format my columns. When I use awk ‘{print $ ….} to try to display my columns, I find this:
    my file.dat | awk ‘{FIELDWIDTHS=”,,,”} {print $..,$.,$..}’ > newfile.dat

    Region Lat Long

    ARABIA-W 27.080 37.250
    34.500 131.600 571
    -23.300 -67.620 6046
    14.501 -90.876 3976

    Columns mix with other unselected columns

    The desired result is this:

    Region lat long elevation
    ARABIA-W 27.080 37.250 1900
    HONSHU-JAPAN 34.500 131.600 571
    CHILE-N -23.300 -67.620 6046
    GUATEMALA 14.501 -90.876 3976
    Can you help me please because i want to use latitudes and longitudes

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      You didn’t mention your input data.
      However, the FIELDWIDTHS is a list of field widths separated by a space.
      Ex:
      FIELDWIDTHS=”4 5 7 6″
      You can use this in case your field are not the same such as:
      1111
      11111
      1111111
      111111

      Regards,

      Reply

  40. Hello Mokhtar,

    pleease help to get this:

    cellid=10
    TA=10
    TA=5
    cellid=20
    TA=3
    TA=50
    TA=100

    You can split each group of lines into separate files like this:
    $ awk ‘/cellid=[0-9]/{line=”group”++i;}{print > line;}’ test
    based on the current content, this will create 2 files called group1 and group2.
    Each file will contain the lines under it.

    As I understand /cellid=[0-9]/ will match only cellid=1 or cellid=2 from above record, why does awk command provided by you places the whole group (cellid=10\nTA=10\nTA=5) to the file???

    THANKS A LOT for this and for your posts, they are cooool, thanks again

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      The command splits each group and place it in a separate file.
      So group1 file contains:
      cellid=10
      TA=10
      TA=5
      And group2 file contains:
      cellid=20
      TA=3
      TA=50
      TA=100
      The awk command only stops when it sees the matched text ‘/cellid=[0-9]/ otherwise, it will continue through the lines.

      Reply

  41. Please help me in proving the script that retrieves the contents of the particular path in the below JSON output

    [{“path”:”lam/kej/bat.p12″,”data”:{“type”:”FILE”,”description”:”new p12 file”,”dfsxcvxc”:null,”contents”:”dHlwZT1qZjdskdjskdjskfjskfhbWU9YWlrX29wZF9wb3BlCnBhc3
    N3b3JkPWNuZHZqZHZqdgpkcml2ZXJjbGFzcz1wsdsdsdsdsdsdsdsddsssfsdfsfdsfsdfsffdfddssfdsfsdfsffsfsG5qZW5qdi5jb20KbWF4eHRvdGFsPTIzMAptYXh3YWl0bWlsbHM9MjkwMDA=”},”owner”:”fdsf
    sfdfs”,”recipients”:[{“value”:”fdfff_vfd_polk_poik”}],”metadata”:{“createdby”:”nhjdnd”,”createdts”:”12-22-0940 20:09:34″,”lastupdatedby”:”vffsfsfs”,”lastupdatedby”:”09
    -34-9989 09:44:23″,”version”:8,”active”:true},”delegates”:[{“value”:”bifd_fdd_fdff_jdj@oppd.fdjfjdj.net”},{“value”:”dndhdj”},{“value”:”vdvdvd”},{“value”:”dndhdj”},{“va
    lue”:”vdvdvd”}]”env”:”dev”,”orgid”:”nan”,”family”:”kkf”,”adp”:”cdfvdvdv”,”targetorgid”:null,”requester”:null,”dpprocessid”:null,”gamodjitg”:””,”subtype”:”db”,”selected”
    :false,”dmx”:false,”komprefix”:null,”gamouser”:false},{“path”:”lam/kej/purpose.p12″,”data”:{“type”:”FILE”,”description”:”new purpose file”,”dfsxcvxc”:null,”contents”:”fs
    fsZzfdfdfdfssfsfLmZqZmoKdXNlcm5hbWU9YWlrX29wZF9wb3BlCnBhc3N3b3JkPWNuZHZqZHZqdgpkcml2ZXJjbGFzcz1wb2N2ZmQuZmp2ai5mZnJmdnYKdXJsPWpmZWtmLmdlZ2QuZmVnZmVnQG5qZW5qdi5jb20KbWF4
    eHRvdGFsPTIzMAptYXh3YWl0bWlsbHM9MjkwMDA=”},”owner”:”2ndsfsfdfs”,”recipients”:[{“value”:”2nd_vfd_polk_poik”}],”metadata”:{“createdby”:”2ndjdnd”,”createdts”:”12-22-0940
    20:09:34″,”lastupdatedby”:”2ndfsfsfs”,”lastupdatedby”:”09-34-9989 09:44:23″,”version”:8,”active”:true},”delegates”:[{“value”:”2ndfd_fdd_fdff_jdj@oppd.fdjfjdj.net”},{“va
    lue”:”2nddhdj”},{“value”:”2ndvdvd”},{“value”:”2nddhdj”},{“value”:”2ndvdvd”}]”env”:”mit”,”orgid”:”nan”,”family”:”2nd”,”adp”:”2nddv”,”targetorgid”:null,”requester”:null,”
    2ndrocessid”:null,”g2ndodjitg”:””,”subtype”:”db”,”selected”:false,”dmx”:false,”2ndprefix”:null,”gamouser”:false}]

    Reply

    1. Hi,

      You didn’t mention if you want a specific part of the JSON path or the entire part.
      Can you tell us what command did you ran and results did you got?

      Regards,

      Reply

  42. Hi
    I have input file like
    0000000001YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000001YYICA20001
    0000000001YYICA3CBA0000 100
    0000000001YYICA4NEU
    0000000001YYICA5
    0000000001YYICA6 20231102
    0000000001YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000001YYICA20001
    0000000001YYICA3KLM0000 100
    0000000001YYICA4NEU
    0000000001YYICA5
    0000000001YYICA6 20231102
    0000000001YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000001YYICA20001
    0000000001YYICA3ABV0000 100
    0000000001YYICA4NEU
    0000000001YYICA5
    0000000001YYICA6 20231102

    but i want output like

    0000000001YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000001YYICA20001
    0000000001YYICA3CBA0000 100
    0000000001YYICA4NEU
    0000000001YYICA5
    0000000001YYICA6 20231102
    0000000002YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000002YYICA20001
    0000000002YYICA3KLM0000 100
    0000000002YYICA4NEU
    0000000002YYICA5
    0000000002YYICA6 20231102
    0000000003YYICA1Pi prk werrr
    0000000003YYICA20001
    0000000003YYICA3ABV0000 100
    0000000003YYICA4NEU
    0000000003YYICA5
    0000000003YYICA6 20231102

    here Every 6 lines from column 1 to 10 should be unique and next 6 lines should be +1 means create sequence number in unix

    thank ou

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      You can write a script that increments a counter every six lines and then substitutes the first 10 characters of each line with the incremented value.

      awk '{
    if (NR % 6 == 1) counter++;
    printf "%010d%s\n", counter, substr($0, 11);
}' input_file.txt > output_file.txt

      Hope that helps!

      Reply

  43. I Have files like
    abcd_200003001.act
    abcd_200003002.act
    abcd_200003003.act
    abcd_200003004.act
    I need to count Incrementally and display and compare with previous file only +1 file need to display else come out from loop

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      You can use the following awk script:

      ls abcd_*.act | awk -F_ '{print $2}' | sort -n | awk '{
    if (prev + 1 != $1) {
        print "File missing: abcd_" prev + 1 ".act";
        exit;
    }
    prev = $1;
}'

      The second awk command processes the sorted numbers and compares each number with the previous one.
      If the current number is not exactly 1 greater than the previous number, it prints a message indicating the missing file and exits the loop.
      Hope you find what you need!

      Regards,

      Reply

  44. Hi,
    I have this file :

    RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:EBR-KDI.1#sho clock
    Mon Jun 24 08:03:24.177 WITA
    08:03:24.375 WITA Mon Jun 24 2024
    RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:EBR-KDI.1#ping 36.95.255.73 source 36.95.255.74 rep 100
    Mon Jun 24 08:03:24.628 WITA
    Type escape sequence to abort.
    Sending 100, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 36.95.255.73, timeout is 2 seconds:
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Success rate is 100 percent (100/100), round-trip min/avg/max = 35/35/36 ms
    RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:EBR-KDI.1#show bgp ipv6 unicast neighbor 2001:4488:702:5::1 detail | include state
    Mon Jun 24 08:03:35.313 WITA
    BGP state = Established, up for 2d14h
    RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:EBR-KDI.1#show ospf neighbor bundle-ether 12.2900
    Mon Jun 24 08:03:36.232 WITA
    Neighbor ID Pri State Dead Time Address Interface
    182.5.0.2 1 FULL/ – 00:00:34 182.5.0.66 Bundle-Ether12.2900

    And need this output :

    Mon Jun 10 08:24 WITA
    #IPv4_EBRKDI.1-PE.TRANSIT.BAL=100 percent|35 ms
    #BGP.IPv6=Established
    #OSPF=FULL

    Could you help me on this?

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      From the output you need and input file I got the pattern and I used teh following awk script:

      #!/bin/awk -f

BEGIN {
    date = "Mon Jun 10 08:24 WITA"
    print date
}
/Success rate is 100 percent/ {
    split($10, rt, "/")
    print "#IPv4_EBRKDI.1-PE.TRANSIT.BAL=100 percent|" rt[1] " ms"
}
/BGP state = Established/ {
    print "#BGP.IPv6=Established"
}
/FULL/ {
    print "#OSPF=FULL"
}

      Then you can use this script like this:

      script.awk data.txt

      Hope that helps!

      Reply
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *