text: Inline::Awk - Add awk code to your Perl programs.
  Call an awk function from a Perl program:
  use Inline AWK; hello("awk"); __END__ __AWK__ function hello(str) { print "Hello " str }
  Or, call an entire awk program using the
  awk() function:
  use Inline AWK; awk(); # operates on @ARGV by default __END__ __AWK__ # Count the number of lines in a file END { print NR } that you don't require awk to use the Inline::Awk module.
  Here is an example of how you would incorporate some awk functions into a Perl program:
  use Inline AWK; $num = 5; $str = 'ciao'; print square($num), "\n"; print echo($str), "\n"; print "Now, back to our normal program.\n" __END__ __AWK__ function square(num) { return num * num } function echo(str) { return str " " str }
  You can call an awk program via the
  awk() function. Here is a simple version of the Unix utility
  wc which counts the number of lines, words and characters in a file:
  use Inline AWK; awk(); __END__ __AWK__ # Simple minded wc BEGIN { file = ARGV[1] } { words += NF chars += length($0) +1 # +2 in DOS } END { printf("%7d%8d%8d %s\n", NR, words, chars, file) }
  The
  awk() function is imported into you Inline::Awk program by default. It allows you to run
  Inline::Awk code as a program and to pass arguments to it.
  Say, for example, that you have an awk program called
  parsefile.awk that is normally run like this:
  awk -f parsefile.awk type=1 example.ini
  If you then turned
  parsefile.awk into an Inline::Awk program, (perhaps by using the
  a2a utility in the distro), you could run the code from within a Perl program as follows:
  awk('type=1', 'example.ini');
  If you are using
  -w or
  warnings in your Perl program you should quote any literal string in the variable assignment that you pass:
  awk('type=ini', 'example.ini'); # gives a warning with -w awk('type="ini"', 'example.ini'); # no warning
  The default action of an awk program is to loop over the files that it is passed as arguments. Therefore, the
  awk() function without arguments is equivalent to inserting the following code into your Perl program:
  while (<>) { # Converted awk code here }
  As usual, the empty diamond operator,
  <> will operate on
  @ARGV, shifting off the elements until it is empty. Therefore,
  @ARGV will be cleared after you call
  awk(). However,
  awk() creates a
  local copy of any arguments that it receives so you can avoid clearing
  @ARGV by passing it as an argument:
  awk(@ARGV); # Do something else with @ARGV in Perl
  An awk program doesn't loop over a file if it contains a BEGIN block only:
  use Inline AWK; awk(); __END__ __AWK__ BEGIN { print "Hello, world!" }
  As with all Perl functions the return value of
  awk() is the last expression evaluated. This is an unintentional feature but you may find a use for it.
  If your program only has awk functions and no awk program you can ignore
  awk(). However, it is still imported into you Perl program.
  You can use
  Inline::Awk in any of the following ways. See also the Inline documentation:
  Method 1 (the standard method):
  use Inline AWK; # Call the awk code __END__ __AWK__ # awk code here
  Method 2 (for simple code):
  use Inline AWK => "# awk code here";
  Method 3 (requires Inline::Files):
  use Inline::Files; use Inline AWK; # Call the awk code __AWK__ # awk code here
  Note, any of the following use declarations are valid:
  use Inline awk; use Inline Awk; use Inline AWK;
  However, they should be matched by a corresponding data section:
  __awk__ __Awk__ __AWK__
  Inline::Awk in based on the same framework that underlies all of the
  Inline:: modules. This is described in detail in the
  Inline-API document.
  Inline::Awk works by filtering awk code through the Perl utility
  a2p. The a2p utility converts awk code to Perl code using a parser written in C and YACC. Inline::Awk pre and post-processes the code going through a2p to obtain a result that is as close as possible to the output of a real awk compiler. However, it doesn't always get it completely right, see BUGS.
  Nevertheless, Inline::Awk can compile and run 130 of the code examples and programs in "The AWK Programming Language" and produce the same results as awk, mawk or gawk. It can run an additional 20 programs from the book with only minor modifications to the awk code. See, the regression test at:
  While
  a2p does a very good job of converting awk code to Perl it was never intended for the use that
  Inline::Awk put it to. Where possible Inline::Awk compensates for the cases where a2p differs from awk. However, you may still encounter bugs or discrepancies. The following sections give some hints on how to work around these, ahem, issues.
  Awk uses the same equality operators for both numbers and strings whereas Perl uses different operators. For example consider the following awk function:
  function max(m, n) { return (m > n ? m : n) }
  There isn't enough information here for a2p to tell if
  m and
  n will be numeric or string values so it defaults to a string comparison and generates a warning (See the "THE VOICE OF LARRY"):
  sub max { local($M, $n) = @_; ($M gt $n ? $M : $n); #??? }
  This is probably not what was intended.
  However, a2p will take into account any previous uses of a variable in a numeric or string context. Therefore, the following modified code:
  function max(m, n) { m += 0; return (m > n ? m : n) }
  Will produce a numeric comparison (although the warning is still generated):
  sub max { local($M, $n) = @_; $M += 0; ($M > $n ? $M : $n); #??? }
  In an awk function
  return expression is a valid statement for any valid expression. However, some expressions can cause problems for a2p. For example the following function would cause a translation failure:
  function isnum(n) { return n ~ /^[+-]?[0-9]+$/ } # Fails
  The simple workaround for this is to include parenthesis around any complex expression in a return statement:
  function isnum(n) { return (n ~ /^[+-]?[0-9]+$/) } # Passes
  A2p can also have problems with the ternary operator
  exp1 ? exp2 : exp3 when it is used in complex expressions. Therefore, it is best to put parentheses around all ternary conditionals.
  printf "Found %d file%s", n, n == 1 ? "": "s" # Fails printf "Found %d file%s", n, (n == 1 ? "": "s") # Passes
  This isn't a problem for simpler assignments.
  Since I have always wanted to write an awk compiler it would have been nice to call the module
  Inline::Jawk: that is to say, John's awk. However, I was chastened by the BUGS section of the mawk man page where mawk's author Mike Brennan says: "Implementors of the AWK language have shown a consistent lack of imagination when naming their programs.".
  The following warning indicates that
  a2p couldn't determine if a string or numeric context was required at some point in your awk code:
  Please check my work on the lines I've marked with "#???". The operation I've selected may be wrong for the operand types.
  See, the BUGS section for an explanation of why you should heed this warning.
  Due to the nature of the Inline mechanism you will only see this warning the first time that you run your program. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, it depends on your point of view.
  The utility of this module is questionable: it doesn't do much more than you can already do with
  a2p; you can do something similar with
  Filter::exec "a2p"; and even without
  a2p it's generally easy to translate awk code to Perl code.
  However, I am fond of awk and if nothing else it will give Brian Ingerson an extra bullet point on his Inline languages slide.
  Also,
  Inline::Awk serves as an atonement for
  Inline::PERL. ;-)
  Inline.pm, the Inline API and Foo.pm.
  "The AWK Programming Language" by Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter J. Weinberger, Addison-Wesley, 1988. ISBN 0-201-07981-X.
  Thanks to Brian Ingerson for the excellent
  Inline::C and the
  Inline framework.
  John McNamara jmcnamara@cpan.org
  © MMI, John McNamara.
  All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.