[PLUG] Awk script repositories?

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Fri Mar 31 22:36:01 UTC 2017


On Fri, 31 Mar 2017, Tom wrote:

> While this is not the answer you are looking for - if you are looking for
> all sorts of data manipulation libraries - I would turn your attention to
> Python or Perl - both have more libraries than you could discover/learn in
> one lifetime.

Tom,

   I'm considering Python, too.

> While awk is super fast and convenient, especially when used in pipes, it
> is not the shining example of modern modular tool for large/long projects.
> That being said, you are probably using unique data files and formats for
> every little thing you do. So, you will need at least some light custom
> data processing for each of those jobs, and in that case, reusable awk
> scripts maybe a good choice.

   Almost every job requires different text or numerical data
transformation(s). Often these are one-off and unique and do not justify
the effort to write a Python or other script.

   I have a small collection of short Python and awk scripts that each do one
thing when extracting data from spreadsheets and manipulating it so it's
suitable for inserting in database tables or reading in R for statistical
analyses.

   The textual manipulations might benefit from the same approach: a set of
scripts each doing a specific task and when applied in sequence can do a
complex job.

Thanks,

Rich



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