Languages 1 min read

Awk

Last Updated May 24, 2021 1:35 pm

An interpreted programming language that is included in most versions of UNIX. The name is derived from the initials of its creators — Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan — who developed the language in 1977 and 1978. The language is particularly designed for filtering and manipulating textual data. In this respect, it is similar to Perl, though Perl is more powerful.

There are many variants of awk, including gawk, which is the GNU version.

Was this Article helpful? Yes No

Thank you for your feedback. 0% 0%

About the author

Webopedia Staff

Since 1995, more than 100 tech experts and researchers have kept Webopedia’s definitions, articles, and study guides up to date. For more information on current editorial staff, please visit our About page.