Foreword to the Fourth Edition
Some things don’t change. Thirteen years ago I wrote: “If you use
awk
or want to learn how, then read this book.” True
then, and still true today.
Learning to use a programming language is about more than mastering
the syntax. One needs to acquire an understanding of how to use the features
of the language to solve practical programming problems. A focus of this
book is many examples that show how to use awk
.
Some things do change. Our computers are much faster and have more
memory. Consequently, speed and storage inefficiencies of a high-level
language matter less. Prototyping in awk
and then
rewriting in C for performance reasons happens less, because more often the
prototype is fast enough.
Of course, there are computing operations that are best done in C or
C++. With gawk
4.1 and later, you do not have to choose
between writing your program in awk
or in C/C++.
You can write most of your
program in awk
and the aspects that require C/C++ capabilities can
be written in C/C++, and then the pieces glued together when the
gawk
module loads the C/C++ module as a dynamic plug-in.
Chapter 16
has all the details, and, as
expected, many examples to help you learn the ins and outs.
I enjoy programming in awk
and had
fun (re)reading this book. I think you will, too.
Get Effective awk Programming, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.