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#text-processing (7)

awk / gawk — Text Processing

Pattern-action language for structured text. Field splitting, built-in variables, arithmetic, string functions, arrays, BEGIN/END blocks, and practical data-processing recipes.
awk gawk text-processing cli scripting data

cut, paste & join — Column Tools

Extract columns by delimiter or byte position (cut), merge files column-wise (paste), and join on a common key field (join). Essential for tab/CSV/field-delimited data.
cut paste join text-processing cli csv columns

grep — Pattern Search

Search files and streams using fixed strings, extended regex, or PCRE. Covers all major flags, context, recursive search, and pipeline patterns.
grep regex search text-processing cli pipes

ripgrep (rg) — Fast Recursive Search

Modern grep replacement written in Rust. Respects .gitignore, searches hidden files optionally, supports PCRE2, and is significantly faster on large codebases.
ripgrep rg grep search text-processing cli rust

sed — Stream Editor

Non-interactive text transformation. Substitution, deletion, insertion, address ranges, in-place editing, and multi-line patterns with practical recipes.
sed stream-editor text-processing regex cli scripting

sort, uniq & wc — Counting & Ordering

Sort lines (numerically, by field, human-readable sizes), deduplicate with uniq, count lines/words/bytes with wc, and number lines with nl. With real-world pipeline recipes.
sort uniq wc nl text-processing cli data

tr & xargs — Transform and Execute

Translate, squeeze, and delete characters with tr. Build and execute command lines from stdin with xargs. Includes parallel execution, NUL safety, and pipeline recipes.
tr xargs text-processing cli parallel pipes