Using Variables With awk | Linux Today

Using Variables With awk

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Nov 17, 2010

[ Thanks to Andrew
Weber
for this link. ]

“Variables awk supports user defined variables as well
as variables that are predefined. These variables do not need to be
declared like they do in bash scripts. There are three types of
variables:

1. System Variables
2. Scalers
3. Arrays

System or Built-in Variables
System variables are upper case and case sensitive.

NR: number of input lines
The NR variable stores each record, when it is read it is
incremented by 1 as you see in the example.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.