Learning AWK Programming

Function definition and syntax

The definition of functions can be given anywhere between the rules of an AWK program. It is not mandatory in AWK to define a function before calling it because AWK first reads the entire program before it starts to execute it. The general syntax for defining a user-defined function is as follows:

function function_name(argument1, argument2, …local variable.) {                                            body-of-function }

• function_name: This is the name of the function to be defined. A valid function name could consist of letters, digits, and underscores, but doesn't start with a digit and could be 52 letters in length. In a single AWK program, a variable name, array, or function should be unique. AWK keywords cannot be used as function names.
• argument ...