Many of the examples in this Web page take their input from two sample data files. The first, mail-list, represents a list of peoples’ names together with their email addresses and information about those people. The second data file, called inventory-shipped, contains information about monthly shipments. In both files, each line is considered to be one record.
In mail-list, each record contains the name of a person, his/her phone number, his/her email address, and a code for his/her relationship with the author of the list. The columns are aligned using spaces. An ‘A’ in the last column means that the person is an acquaintance. An ‘F’ in the last column means that the person is a friend. An ‘R’ means that the person is a relative:
Amelia 555-5553 amelia.zodiacusque@gmail.com F Anthony 555-3412 anthony.asserturo@hotmail.com A Becky 555-7685 becky.algebrarum@gmail.com A Bill 555-1675 bill.drowning@hotmail.com A Broderick 555-0542 broderick.aliquotiens@yahoo.com R Camilla 555-2912 camilla.infusarum@skynet.be R Fabius 555-1234 fabius.undevicesimus@ucb.edu F Julie 555-6699 julie.perscrutabor@skeeve.com F Martin 555-6480 martin.codicibus@hotmail.com A Samuel 555-3430 samuel.lanceolis@shu.edu A Jean-Paul 555-2127 jeanpaul.campanorum@nyu.edu R
The data file inventory-shipped represents information about shipments during the year. Each record contains the month, the number of green crates shipped, the number of red boxes shipped, the number of orange bags shipped, and the number of blue packages shipped, respectively. There are 16 entries, covering the 12 months of last year and the first four months of the current year. An empty line separates the data for the two years:
Jan 13 25 15 115 Feb 15 32 24 226 Mar 15 24 34 228 Apr 31 52 63 420 May 16 34 29 208 Jun 31 42 75 492 Jul 24 34 67 436 Aug 15 34 47 316 Sep 13 55 37 277 Oct 29 54 68 525 Nov 20 87 82 577 Dec 17 35 61 401 Jan 21 36 64 620 Feb 26 58 80 652 Mar 24 75 70 495 Apr 21 70 74 514
The sample files are included in the gawk distribution,
in the directory awklib/eg/data.