3 ms·

but, then couldn't you use "cut" as even simpler syntax?

• shawn_w 2y ago
  Maybe if all you want to do is unconditionally extract certain columns from your data. But even in that case cut doesn't let you use a regular expression as the field delimiter.
• stouset 2y ago
  `cut` doesn’t work natively on data that’s been aligned with multiple spaces, you need a `tr -s` pass first. It also doesn’t let you reorder or splice together fields. I used it for years but now that I have a working understanding of `awk` I have never looked back.
  • arp242 2y ago
    FreeBSD cut has -w for that ("split by any amount of whitespace"), but that never made it into GNU cut. Sad, because it's mega useful. Of course awk can do much more, but if all you want is "| awk '{print $2}'" then "cut -wf2" is so much more convenient.
    • stouset 2y ago
      Reordering and splicing are common enough that it’s easier just to always use awk, since the cost of rewriting one to the other is significantly higher.