Effective awk Programming

What Hacker News says

1. AstroJetsonNov 2020
   The guy that runs the site is the author of GAWK: Effective AWK Programming. It's a great book, it helps get you in the AWK mindset.
   thread
2. yesenadamSep 2019
   A copy:

   http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=0AD0779BF3602F1EA22...

   Also Arnold Robbins' books Sed and Awk and Effective Awk Programming are excellent, and also detail the many features added since the latest edition of The AWK Programming Language (1988).

   http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?&req=awk+robbins&sort=year&...

   thread
3. yesenadamFeb 2019
   Same as usual, read every book about it![0] and don't try to learn from the man page. I think the original book by A, W and K (the 2nd edition anyway) was best. Also Arnold Robbins' books Sed and Awk and Effective AWK Programming are great.

   The GNU Awk User's Guide[1] is amazingly detailed, but the new AWK has bloated a lot, has 1000 features where the older one had a few dozen, and those core ones should be learnt first. (But people still like programming with it, and kept asking for features..) Hmm I don't think I use any of the new features, maybe I should...

   But really, it's very simple, I can't thinking of anything that's been anything like as easy to learn, except maybe BASIC. With which AWK shares some similarities - the friendliness of it, the BEGIN and END..

   [1] http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html

   [0] Or if there are too many, get names from lists of best books on a subject.

   Show morethread
4. michaelsbradleyOct 2017
   See also the GNU Awk manual (currently Edition 4.2, Oct 2017)

   GAWK: Effective AWK Programming

   https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf

   thread
5. michaelsbradleyJan 2017
   Robbins' open source book may be of interest as well:

   GAWK: Effective AWK Programming

   https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.pdf

   thread
6. alsetmusicApr 2026
   Just made me remember that my awk programming book has a penguin. Now I'm sad two times! Sorry, "Effective awk Programming"[0]

   0. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26353120M/Effective_awk_Prog...

   thread