How to Use Awk in Perl

Awk is a Unix data extraction utility.

Awk is a Unix utility function you can use to extract data for filtering and reporting. An awk command can be called directly from the command line, a shell script or a Perl script. Although an awk script cannot be directly written inside a perl script, you can execute it using a perl system call. Two other commands, gawk and nawk, provide alternatives to awk that can be called from perl in the same way.

Instructions

1. Create your perl script with the interpreter directive locating perl on your system. This is typically "#!/usr/bin/perl" or "#!/usr/local/bin/perl," but may vary depending on your particular system parameters.

2. Execute a perl system call using the system() function:

   system (" awk ' --your awk script here--' input_file.txt ");

   The system function forks the awk process. Your perl script will wait for the awk command to finish before it continues executing.

3. Escape characters using a backslash in the awk script that perl may interpret as perl commands, such as "$" and quotation marks. Your call may look like:

   system (" awk ' {print \$5, \"\t\", \$6}' input_file.txt ");

   This awk script will print the fifth and sixth columns of "input_file.txt" separated by a tab character.

References

• Grymoire: Awk
• Perl: System