Linux.com: SysAdmin to SysAdmin: Awk is Your Friend

"The nice thing about humans is that they're at least somewhat predictable. Given the choice between having data randomly strewn about, and having it in some predictable pattern, humans will generally choose predictable patterns (Microsoft filesystem management issues notwithstanding). These patterns are what make awk, a pattern-matching programming language, a wonderful tool for systems administrators, database administrators, and even command-line junkies who use their box mainly for pleasure. The notion of being able to write a one-line command to do almost anything draws ever closer with awk in your tool belt..."

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• IBM developerWorks: Awk by example, Part 2 - Records, loops, and arrays(Jan 14, 2001)
• IBM developerWorks: Awk by example, Part 1 - An intro to the great language with the strange name(Jan 14, 2001)