Was it a faster tool? You had a need, you tossed awk at it and accomplished your goal. Did the 20 seconds vs. 5 seconds matter? The time you spent deciding w

Was it a faster tool? You had a need, you tossed awk at it and accomplished your goal. Did the 20 seconds vs. 5 seconds matter? The time you spent deciding what to do and how to do it took more time. For a one-off, grab some data type of task, the tool that you know well will almost always be the fastest because you get to the end result the quickest. I agree with the comment below. If you haven't already, try mawk instead of awk. It is often many times faster than awk (and other solutions).