gawk: Advanced Features Summary

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1 12.6 Summary
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1    * The '--non-decimal-data' option causes 'gawk' to treat octal- and
1      hexadecimal-looking input data as octal and hexadecimal.  This
1      option should be used with caution or not at all; use of
1      'strtonum()' is preferable.  Note that this option may disappear in
1      a future version of 'gawk'.
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1    * You can take over complete control of sorting in 'for (INDX in
1      ARRAY)' array traversal by setting 'PROCINFO["sorted_in"]' to the
1      name of a user-defined function that does the comparison of array
1      elements based on index and value.
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1    * Similarly, you can supply the name of a user-defined comparison
1      function as the third argument to either 'asort()' or 'asorti()' to
1      control how those functions sort arrays.  Or you may provide one of
1      the predefined control strings that work for
1      'PROCINFO["sorted_in"]'.
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1    * You can use the '|&' operator to create a two-way pipe to a
1      coprocess.  You read from the coprocess with 'getline' and write to
1      it with 'print' or 'printf'.  Use 'close()' to close off the
1      coprocess completely, or optionally, close off one side of the
1      two-way communications.
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1    * By using special file names with the '|&' operator, you can open a
1      TCP/IP (or UDP/IP) connection to remote hosts on the Internet.
1      'gawk' supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
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1    * You can generate statement count profiles of your program.  This
1      can help you determine which parts of your program may be taking
1      the most time and let you tune them more easily.  Sending the
1      'USR1' signal while profiling causes 'gawk' to dump the profile and
1      keep going, including a function call stack.
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1    * You can also just "pretty-print" the program.
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