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Question-1. What is AWK?
Answer-1: AWK is a programming language designed for text processing and data extraction, often used in Unix/Linux environments.
Question-2. What are the key features of AWK?
Answer-2: AWK supports pattern matching, text processing, associative arrays, and built-in string functions.
Question-3. What is the basic syntax of an AWK command?
Answer-3: awk 'pattern {action}' filename where pattern specifies when to execute the action.
Question-4. What are records in AWK?
Answer-4: Records are the units of input processing, typically one line of text.
Question-5. What are fields in AWK?
Answer-5: Fields are parts of a record separated by a delimiter, accessed as $1, $2, etc.
Question-6. How do you specify a field separator in AWK?
Answer-6: Use the -F option or set FS inside the script, e.g., awk -F, '{print $1}' file.
Question-7. What is the default field separator in AWK?
Answer-7: The default field separator is whitespace (spaces and tabs).
Question-8. How do you print all fields in AWK?
Answer-8: Use the special variable $0, e.g., awk '{print $0}' file.
Question-9. What is the BEGIN block in AWK?
Answer-9: The BEGIN block executes code before processing any records.
Question-10. What is the END block in AWK?
Answer-10: The END block executes code after all records are processed.
Question-11. How do you print the second field of a file using AWK?
Answer-11: Use awk '{print $2}' file.
Question-12. How do you process only lines that match a pattern in AWK?
Answer-12: Use the pattern before the action, e.g., awk '/pattern/ {print $0}' file.
Question-13. How do you count the number of lines in a file using AWK?
Answer-13: Use awk 'END {print NR}' file.
Question-14. What does NR represent in AWK?
Answer-14: NR is a built-in variable that holds the current record number.
Question-15. What does NF represent in AWK?
Answer-15: NF is a built-in variable that holds the number of fields in the current record.
Question-16. How do you use AWK to find lines longer than 50 characters?
Answer-16: Use awk 'length($0) > 50' file.
Question-17. How do you sum the values in the second column of a file?
Answer-17: Use awk '{sum += $2} END {print sum}' file.
Question-18. What is an associative array in AWK?
Answer-18: An associative array stores key-value pairs and allows string indexing.
Question-19. How do you define an associative array in AWK?
Answer-19: Use array[key] = value, e.g., count["apple"] = 5.
Question-20. How do you iterate over an array in AWK?
Answer-20: Use a for loop, e.g., for (key in array) {print key, array[key]}.
Question-21. What is the purpose of the split() function in AWK?
Answer-21: The split() function divides a string into an array based on a delimiter.
Question-22. How do you split a string into an array in AWK?
Answer-22: Use split(string, array, delimiter), e.g., split("a,b,c", arr, ",").
Question-23. What is the gsub() function in AWK?
Answer-23: gsub() globally replaces all occurrences of a pattern in a string with a replacement.
Question-24. How do you replace "foo" with "bar" in AWK?
Answer-24: Use gsub(/foo/, "bar", $0) to modify the current record.
Question-25. How do you use regular expressions in AWK?
Answer-25: Use patterns enclosed in slashes, e.g., /pattern/ {action}.
Question-26. What does ^ and $ mean in AWK regular expressions?
Answer-26: ^ matches the start of a line, and $ matches the end of a line.
Question-27. How do you extract the last field of each line in AWK?
Answer-27: Use awk '{print $NF}' file.
Question-28. How do you print the first and last field of a record in AWK?
Answer-28: Use awk '{print $1, $NF}' file.
Question-29. How do you calculate the average of a column in AWK?
Answer-29: Use awk '{sum += $2} END {print sum / NR}' file.
Question-30. How do you skip the first line in AWK?
Answer-30: Use NR > 1 as the condition, e.g., awk 'NR > 1 {print $0}' file.
Question-31. What is the purpose of next in AWK?
Answer-31: The next statement skips the rest of the current iteration and moves to the next record.
Question-32. How do you ignore case in AWK pattern matching?
Answer-32: Set IGNORECASE=1 or use tolower()/toupper().
Question-33. How do you sort lines in AWK?
Answer-33: Use an array to store lines and sort them manually with a loop.
Question-34. How do you use AWK with pipes?
Answer-34: Use awk in a pipeline, e.g., `cat file
Question-35. How do you match multiple patterns in AWK?
Answer-35: Combine patterns with `
Question-36. How do you append output to a file in AWK?
Answer-36: Use >> redirection, e.g., awk '{print $1 >> "output.txt"}'.
Question-37. What is the purpose of printf in AWK?
Answer-37: printf formats and prints output, similar to C's printf.
Question-38. How do you format output in AWK?
Answer-38: Use printf, e.g., printf("%.2f\n", $1).
Question-39. How do you check if a field is empty in AWK?
Answer-39: Use a condition like $1 == "".
Question-40. How do you print the number of fields in each line?
Answer-40: Use awk '{print NF}' file.
Question-41. How do you use comments in AWK?
Answer-41: Use # to add comments, e.g., # This is a comment.
Question-42. How do you concatenate strings in AWK?
Answer-42: Use a space or "", e.g., print $1 $2.
Question-43. What is the substr() function in AWK?
Answer-43: The substr() function extracts a substring from a string.
Question-44. How do you extract the first 5 characters of a string in AWK?
Answer-44: Use substr(string, 1, 5).
Question-45. How do you check for numeric values in AWK?
Answer-45: Use a condition like $1 ~ /^[0-9]+$/.
Question-46. How do you execute shell commands in AWK?
Answer-46: Use system(), e.g., system("ls -l").
Question-47. How do you find unique values in a column using AWK?
Answer-47: Use an associative array to track seen values, e.g., if (!seen[$1]++).
Question-48. How do you convert a string to lowercase in AWK?
Answer-48: Use tolower(string).
Question-49. How do you find the maximum value in a column using AWK?
Answer-49: Use if ($2 > max) max = $2 END {print max}.
Question-50. How do you run an AWK script from a file?
Answer-50: Use awk -f script.awk inputfile.
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