Tiny Helpers for awk, sed, vim and Script Cheat Sheet

A Programming › Programming cheat sheet in English by Rudi

Code snippets — possibly helpful, whether used partially or combined — to speed up the process of creating simple scripts.

Bash Sed Vim Script Batch Awk

2,564 views 480 downloads 2 Apr 2025 History

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Introducion

I know the tools and their syntax, but I don’t use them every day. When I do, I often feel like I’m starting from scratch. I hope the following snippets - partially or combined - help me get an idea and start faster in finding a solution. Maybe they’ll help you too?!
Just try them out and see what you get :)
Made with current versions in 2025 (Ubuntu LTS https://ubuntu.com; GNU utilities for Windows https://unxutils.sourceforge.net).

AWK (octal, hex)

From: To:
yin & yang yin and yang

Lnx: echo -e yin '\0046' yang | awk '{gsub(/\x26/, "and"); print $0}'
Win: echo.exe yin \046 yang | gawk.exe "{gsub(/\x26/, \"and\"); print $0}"

SED (octal, hex)

From: To:
yin & yang yin and yang

Lnx: echo -e yin '\0046' yang | sed 's/\x26/and/'
Win: echo.exe yin \046 yang | sed.exe "s/\x26/and/"

AWK (Conditions)

From: To:
1 Line 2: 2
2 Line 3: 3
3 Line 5: 5
4
5
Lnx: echo -e '1\n2\n3\n4\n5' | awk '{if($0 > 1 && $0 <= 5 && NR != 4) print "Line " NR ": " $0}'
Win: echo.exe 1\n2\n3\n4\n5 | gawk.exe "{if($0 > 1 && $0 <= 5 && NR != 4) print \"Line \" NR \": \" $0}"

AWK (Substring)

From: To:
wvvw.google.de wvvw.google.com
google
go-away

Lnx: echo wvvw.google.com | awk 'BEGIN{FS="."}{print $0; print $2; print substr($2, 1, 2)"-away"}'
Win: echo.exe wvvw.google.com | gawk.exe "BEGIN{FS=\".\"}{print $0; print $2; print substr($2, 1, 2)\"-away\"}"

SED (Substring)

From: To:
wvvw.google.de go-away

Lnx: echo wvvw.google.com | sed 's/^{.*\.$..$.*\../\1-away/'

Win: echo.exe wvvw.google.com | sed.exe "s/}.*\.$..$.*\../\1-away/"

AWK (System call)

From: To:
Time: Time: hh:mm

Lnx: echo "Time: " | awk '{system("date +%R" | getline m); print $0 m}' 2>/dev/null
Win: echo.exe Time: | gawk.exe "{system(\"time /t\" | getline m); print $0 m}" 2>NUL

AWK (Substitution, multiple)

From: To:
E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA [subst cnt] e4:54:e8:6d:31:aa

Lnx: echo E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA | awk '{print gsub("-", ":"); print tolower($0)}'
Win: echo.exe E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA | gawk.exe "{print gsub(\"-\", \":\"); print tolower($0)}"

SED (Substitution, multiple)

From: To:
E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA e4:54:e8:6d:31:aa

Lnx: echo E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA | sed 's/-/:/g; s/^{$.$$/\L&/'

Win: echo.exe E4-54-E8-6D-31-AA | sed.exe "s/-/:/g; s/}$.$$/\L&/"

AWK (printf)

From: To:
dummy1-dummy2 Six \ Two = 3.00
123456789 123456 1234567

Lnx: echo dummy1-dummy2 | awk 'BEGIN{FS="-"; equ="="; bsl="\\"}{V1="Six"; V2="Two"; V3=3; printf(" %+9s %s %-6s %s %7.2f\n", V1, bsl, V2, equ, V3)}END{print "-123456789---123456---1234567"}'
Win: echo.exe dummy1-dummy2 | gawk.exe "BEGIN{FS=\"-\"; equ=\"=\"; bsl=\"\\ \"}{V1=\"Six\"; V2=\"Two\"; V3=3; printf(\" %+9s %s %-6s %s %#7.2f\n\", V1, bsl, V2, equ, V3)}END{print \"-123456789----123456---1234567\"}"

VIM (Sort File, System Call)

From: To:
bravo alpha
delta bravo
alpha bravo
bravo charlie
charlie delta
echo echo
foxtrot echo
echo echo
echo foxtrot
Lnx/Win: :1,$ !sort

VIM (Remove Duplicate Lines in a Sorted File)

From: To:
alpha alpha
bravo bravo
bravo charlie
charlie delta
delta echo
echo foxtrot
echo
echo
foxtrot
Lnx/Win: :%s/^$.*$$\n\1$\+$/\1/

VIM (Rearrangement, Assign States to Regions)

From: To:
AMER tab Canada AMER tab Canada
APAC tab China APAC tab China tab Japan
APAC tab Japan EMEA tab Lebanon tab Senegal tab Spain
EMEA tab Lebanon
EMEA tab Senegal
EMEA tab Spain

Lnx/Win: :%s/^$..*$\t$..*$$$\n\1$\+\t$..*$$/\1\t\2\t\4/ [Repeat until "Pattern not found"]

Some Bash script

#!/usr/bin/bash
hh=`date +%H`
echo "Current hour:" $hh
read -p 'Hour to search for (x=Exit)?: ' hour
echo $hh | grep "\<$hour\>" >/dev/null
RetCode=$?
if [ $hour == "x" ]; then
exit
elif [ $RetCode -eq 0 ]; then
echo "$hh eq $hour Hit"
elif [ $RetCode -eq 1 ]; then
echo "$hh neq $hour noHit"
fi
a=`expr $hour + 1`
echo -e "$hour + 1 =" $a "\n"

Some Batch script

@echo off
cls
set hh=%time:_{-11,2%

if %hh% LSS 10 set hh=0%time:}-10,1%
echo Current hour: %hh%
set /P hour=Hour to search for (x=Exit)?:
if [%hour%]==[x] goto :EOF
echo %hh% | find "%hour%" >NUL
if errorlevel 1 echo %hh% neq %hour% noHit
if not errorlevel 1 echo %hh% equ %hour% Hit
for /f %%d in ('date /T') do set dat=%%d
echo %dat%
if %dat% NEQ "01.01.1970" set /a sum=1+1
echo 1+1=%sum%
pause

Some Vim script

" Execute: vim -S this.script
:function! IN()
: call inputsave()
: let @i = input('Hour to search for?: ')
: call inputrestore()
:endfunction
:let hh=strftime("%H")
:echo "Current hour:" hh
:call IN()
:let hour = @i
:if hh == hour
: echo "\n" hh "equ" hour "Hit"
:elseif hh != hour
: echo "\n" hh "neq" hour "noHit"
:endif
:let a = hour + 1
:echo hour "+ 1 =" a

Important note!

Please be careful with unwanted spaces and similar issues when copying and pasting!

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