line orientated

The awk extraction and reporting language is line orientated

The awk extraction and reporting language is line orientated. The action for each rule must begin on the same line as the pattern. However, it is possible to have the pattern and action on separate lines, by using a backslash line continuation symbol to break the line:

 # A backslash symbol allows this single rule to span multiple lines 
 /foobar/ \
 { print $1 }

Note that line continuation characters must be appropriately placed within a rule.