Awk: `Begin { ` Part 1
Standard awk warning: it's tempting to try to use awk on csv files. You'll even get good results on simple csv files that leave you encouraged to go further. Don't.<p>Csv is not standardized and the quoting rules are weird (and not standardized).<p>If you can live with a certain amount of loss of fidelity in your output, you can get away with using awk. If you want a coarse prototype, use awk.<p>If you need robust, production-grade handling of csv files, use (or write) something else.<p>Csv files are a little bit like like dates: superficially simple, with lots of corner cases. Largely for the same reason: lack of standardization.<p>That said, awk is awesome. It's small enough to fit in your brain, unlike Perl (maybe yours is larger than mine?). It's also pretty universally available, with few massive incompatibilities between versions, unlike shell (provided you avoid the gawk-specific features). I love it.