operator

The awk programming language provides a series of *operators* that allow [[value?]]s and variables to be compared, evaluated or manipulated. These operators can combined together with [[value?]]s and variables to make [[expression?]]s. The operators may take [[unary?]], [[dyadic?]] or [[ternary?]] form, depending on the number of [[operand?]]s that they utilize.

assignment operator

As within most other programming languages, the '''equals sign''' acts as a [[dyadic?]] operator, assigning the value of the [[expression?]] of the right hand [[operand?]] to the variable named by the left [[operand?]].

arithmetic operators

• arithmetic operators

The awk programming language provides a standard set of arithmetic operators for manipulating [[integer?]] and [[floating_point?]] numbers.

string operators

• [[string_operator?]]s

logical operators

• logical operators

The logical operators are used to perform [[boolean?]] operations, returning either [[true?]] or [[false?]].

nudge operators

• nudge operators

number sign operators

• number sign operators

comparative operators

• comparative operators

regular expression operators

• regular expression operators

numeric operators

• [[numeric_operator?]]

comma operator

• [[comma?]]

redirection operators

• redirection operators

relationship operators

• [[relationship_operator?]]s

reference operators

• [[reference_operator?]]

dereference operators

• [[dereference_operator?]]

arrow operator

• [[arrow_operator?]]

compound assignment operators

• compound assignment operators

ternary operators

• [[ternary_operator?]]

Operators not supported in awk

The awk programming language does not support the following operator types:

• bitwise operators are not supported by traditional awk implementations, but equivalent functions are available as gawkisms
• concatenation operators
• exponent operator is not supported by traditional awk implementations, but is available as a gawkism
• [[repetition?]] operator

precedence

[[bracket?]]s