Re^6: Split tab-separated file into separate files, based on column name (open on demand)

[LanX]

> Awk's greatest strength and greatest limitation is the implicit outer loop

Are you aware about Perl's command switches?

If not, just have a look at perlrun and search for "awk".

> Perl needs for startup/shutdown overhead.

Probably, but do I want to install awk and sed on Windows?

[jcb]

Are you aware about Perl's command switches?

Yes, but the optional implicit outer loops in Perl are different from the implicit outer loop in Awk — Awk's syntax is built around its implicit outer loop, using PATTERN-RULE pairs, while Perl's implicit outer loops are purely for convenience. I have always just written an outer loop explicitly even in one-liners.

do I want to install awk and sed on Windows?

Unless you already have them, perhaps from Cygwin, possibly not. That is a fair point — on Windows, the Perl startup/shutdown overhead is (probably still) dwarfed by the system startup/shutdown overhead for each process. I kicked Windows out of my personal LAN years ago, though, so I usually do not think to consider its inadequacies. :-)

[LanX]

> Yes, but the optional implicit outer loops in Perl are different from the implicit outer loop in Awk — Awk's syntax is built around its implicit outer loop, using PATTERN-RULE pairs, while Perl's implicit outer loops are purely for convenience. I have always just written an outer loop explicitly even in one-liners.

I have trouble understanding what you mean.

AFAICS are awk's PATTERN-RULES nothing more than if(PATTERN) { RULE } in Perl, plus some special defaults (no Rule means print)

Could you give an example where perl -n fails to allow the same semantic like in awk?

[jcb]

The semantics are the same but the syntax is different and the input range operator in Awk only works in pattern syntax; Perl's equivalent .. and ... operators work anywhere.

The Awk syntax is more elegant for some problems — and completely unusable for most problems better solved in Perl.