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.