Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

1. Unix Basics with Real Dataset Examples

We use the following sample data (fruits.txt):

fruit_id,fruit_name,fruit_qty,unit_price,total_price

1,Mango,2,10,20

2,Apple,6,15,90

3,Banana,4,8,int

4,Watermelon,7,9,63

5,apple,3,15,45

cat fruits.txt

Displays file content:

1,Mango,2,10,20

2,Apple,6,15,90

cut -d',' -f2 fruits.txt

Extracts 2nd column (fruit_name):

Mango

Apple

Banana...

grep -i 'apple' fruits.txt

Finds all lines with 'apple' (case-insensitive):

2,Apple,6,15,90

5,apple,3,15,45

awk -F',' '{ print $2, $5 }' fruits.txt

Prints 2nd and 5th columns: fruit_name and total_price.

sort -t',' -k5,5n fruits.txt

Sorts based on total_price numerically.

head -n 3 fruits.txt

Displays the first 3 lines of the file.

wc -l fruits.txt

Counts the number of lines (records).

uniq

Filters duplicates (works on sorted data).

tail -n 2 fruits.txt

Shows the last two lines.

2. AWK Command Programs Explained

Q1: Display all employee names

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 { print $2 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Skips header (NR > 1) and prints the 2nd field (Name).

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q2: Sort employee names in ascending order

Command:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 { print $2 }' employees.txt | sort

Explanation:

Prints names and sorts them alphabetically using sort.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q3: Sales employees, sorted descending

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $4=="Sales" { print $2 }' employees.txt | sort -r

Explanation:

Selects only Sales department employees and sorts names in reverse order.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q4: Salary > 60000, print Name and Salary

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $5 > 60000 { print $2 "@" $5 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Prints name and salary if salary is greater than 60000.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q5: Count HR employees

Command:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $4=="HR" { count++ } END { print count }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Counts number of HR employees.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q6: Total salary of all employees

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 { sum += $5 } END { print sum }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Adds up salaries and prints total.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q7: Names and ages of employees older than 40

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $3 > 40 { print $2, $3 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Checks if age > 40 and prints name and age.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q8: Average salary in Marketing

Command:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $4=="Marketing" { sum+=$5; count++ } END { print sum/count }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Computes average salary for Marketing department.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q9: Minimum salary - print Name and Salary

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR == 2 || $5 < min { min=$5; name=$2 } END { print name, min }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Tracks minimum salary and corresponding name.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q10: Salary incremented by 10%

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 { inc = $5 * 1.10; print $2, inc }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Calculates 10% raise and prints updated salary.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q11: Sort by salary (ascending)

Command:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F@ 'NR > 1' employees.txt | sort -t@ -k5,5n

Explanation:

Sorts whole lines based on 5th field (Salary).

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q12: Display first 3 rows (excluding header)

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && NR <= 4' employees.txt

Explanation:

Prints 3 employee lines after skipping header.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q13: Names starting with S

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $2 ~ /^S/ { print $2 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

The '^' symbol matches beginning of string; selects names starting with 'S'.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q14: Names ending with a

Command:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $2 ~ /a$/ { print $2 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

The '$' symbol matches end of string; selects names ending with 'a'.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q15: Names containing 'y'

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $2 ~ /y/ { print $2 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Matches names containing the letter 'y'.

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

Q16: Names containing vowels

Command:

awk -F@ 'NR > 1 && $2 ~ /[aeiouAEIOU]/ { print $2 }' employees.txt

Explanation:

Matches names that contain at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u).

Example:

Suppose a line is: 1@Sanjay@25@Sales@50000 -> $2 is 'Sanjay', $4 is 'Sales', $5 is '50000'

3. Additional AWK Programs from Unix 1 (1).txt

Example 1: To Print the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Columns only

fruit_id,fruit_name,fruit_qty,unit_price,total_price

1,Mango,2,10,20

2,Apple,6,15,90

3,Banana,4,8,int

4,Watermelon,7,9,63

Solution:

awk 'BEGIN{

FS=",";

OFS="|";

print $2,$3,$5;

}' fruits.txt

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Example 2: To Find the total price of an apple (PIPELINING grep & awk)

fruit_id,fruit_name,fruit_qty,unit_price,total_price

1,Mango,2,10,20

2,Apple,6,15,90

3,Banana,4,8,int

4,Watermelon,7,9,63

5,apple,3,15,45

Solution:

grep -i "[Aa]pple" fruits.txt | awk 'BEGIN{FS=",";s=0;}

{
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

s = s+$5;

END{

print "The total price spent on apple fruit is " s;

}'

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Example 3: Printing the Multiplication of Number 5

Solution:

awk 'BEGIN{

i=1;

while(i<=10)

print "5 * "i" = "i*5;

i++;

}'

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Example 4: Find the number of fields in a record and total no.of records present in the text file

mango

watermelon

pine apple

custard apple

banana

Solution:
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk 'BEGIN{FS=" ";}

print "The Number of fields present in record " NR " is " NF".";

END{

print NR" records are present.";

}' fruits2.txt

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Input Data:

29,Arun

26,Karthik

28,Kiran

52,Raju

78,Rachel

Example 5:

awk 'BEGIN{FS=",";}

if($1>50)

print "Value is greater than 50.";

else

print "Value is less than 50";

i=1;
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

while(i<=1)

print "Row " NR ", Column 2 (loop "i "): " $2;

i++;

END{

print match("End of Code", /of/);

print RSTART, RLENGTH;

}' example.txt

Example 6:

grep ',A' input3.txt | awk 'BEGIN{FS=",";total_age=0;}

total_age += $1;

count++;

END{

if(count>0)

avg_age = total_age/count;

printf "Average Age for Group A:%.2f\n", avg_age;

else

print "No Data Found";

}'

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 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

ROYAL MAIL HOTEL (CASE STUDY)

employeeDetails.txt (DATA) :

Name,Age,Place,Experience,Salary

Anish,26,Chennai,2,10000

Jai,24,Chennai,2,10000

Kumar,29,Hyderabad,5,32000

John,32,Mumbai,2,11000

Neethu,21,Nagpur,3,13000

Satish,22,Ahmedabad,2,10000

Situation: To Print the complete data

awk 'BEGIN{FS=",";}

print;

}' employeeDetails.txt

Situation: Manager wish to display the employee name and salary working in royal mail hotel

awk 'BEGIN{FS=",";}

print $1,$5;

}' employeeDetails.txt

Situation: Manager wishes to print details of Kumar and Satish

awk '/Kumar|Satish/' employeeDetails.txt

Situation: Manager wishes to find the total expenses of hotel per month in the form of salary
 Unix and AWK Guide (With Examples)

awk -F"," 'BEGIN{

s=0;

s=s+$5;

END{

print "Total Exprenses per month in form of salary is " s;

}' employeeDetails.tx