When to Use `awk'
=================

   You might wonder how `awk' might be useful for you.  Using additional
utility programs, more advanced patterns, field separators, arithmetic
statements, and other selection criteria, you can produce much more
complex output.  The `awk' language is very useful for producing
reports from large amounts of raw data, such as summarizing information
from the output of other utility programs like `ls'.  (*Note A More
Complex Example: More Complex.)

   Programs written with `awk' are usually much smaller than they would
be in other languages.  This makes `awk' programs easy to compose and
use.  Often `awk' programs can be quickly composed at your terminal,
used once, and thrown away.  Since `awk' programs are interpreted, you
can avoid the usually lengthy edit-compile-test-debug cycle of software
development.

   Complex programs have been written in `awk', including a complete
retargetable assembler for 8-bit microprocessors (see Glossary., for
more information) and a microcode assembler for a special purpose Prolog
computer.  However, `awk''s capabilities are strained by tasks of such
complexity.

   If you find yourself writing `awk' scripts of more than, say, a few
hundred lines, you might consider using a different programming
language.  Emacs Lisp is a good choice if you need sophisticated string
or pattern matching capabilities.  The shell is also good at string and
pattern matching; in addition, it allows powerful use of the system
utilities.  More conventional languages, such as C, C++, and Lisp, offer
better facilities for system programming and for managing the complexity
of large programs.  Programs in these languages may require more lines
of source code than the equivalent `awk' programs, but they are easier
to maintain and usually run more efficiently.