Fresh Awk Programming Interview Questions & Answers:

1. The command "awk '{if ("9″>"10″) print "google" else print "linux"}'"
a) will print "google"
b) will print "linux"
c) will generate syntax error
d) none of the mentioned

c) will generate syntax error
Explanation:
Semicolon is required just before the else statement to parse the statement.
Output:
root@ubuntu:/home/google# awk '{if ("9″>"10″) print "google" else print "linux"}'
awk: {if ("9″>"10″) print "google" else print "linux"}
awk: ^ syntax error
root@ubuntu:/home/google#

2. What is the output of this program?

#! /usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {
a=0
do {
print "google"
a++
} while (a<5)
}
a) "google" will print 4 times
b) "google" will print 5 times
c) nothing will print
d) syntax error

b) "google" will print 5 times
Output:
root@ubuntu:/home/google# ./test.awk
google
google
google
google
google
root@ubuntu:/home/google#

3. What is the output of this program?

#! /usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {
for(i=0;i<=5;i++) {
print i
i++
}
}
a) 0,2,4 will print
b) 1,3,5 will print
c) 1,2,3,4,5 will print
d) syntax error because i is not initialised

a) 0,2,4 will print
Output:
root@ubuntu:/home/google# ./test.awk
0
2
4
root@ubuntu:/home/google#

4. What is the output of this program?

#! /usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {
a=6
do {
print "google"
a++
} while (a<5)
}
a) nothing will print
b) "google" will print 5 times
c) "google" will print 4 times
d) "google" will print only 1 time

d) "google" will print only 1 time
Explanation:
Even the condition is false of do-while loop, the body is executed once.
Output:
root@ubuntu:/home/google# ./test.awk
google
root@ubuntu:/home/google#

5. What is the output of this program?

#! /usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {
a=5
while (a<5) {
print "google"
a++;
}
}
a) nothing will print
b) "google" will print 5 times
c) program will generate syntax error
d) none of the mentioned

a) nothing will print
Explanation:
The condition of while statement is false so commands inside the loop will not execute.
Output:
root@ubuntu:/home/google# ./test.awk
root@ubuntu:/home/google#

6. The next statement:
a) immediately stops processing the current record
b) go to the next record
c) both (a) and (b)
d) none of the mentioned

c) both (a) and (b)

7. The break statement:
a) jumps out of the innermost for loop
b) jumps out of the innermost while loop
c) jumps out of the innermost do-while loop
d) all of the mentioned

d) all of the mentioned

8. Which statement instructs gawk to stop processing the current data file?
a) next
b) nextfile
c) exit
d) exitfile

b) nextfile

9. If the argument is supplied to the exit statement:
a) its value is used as the exit status code for the awk process
b) syntax error will generate
c) exit returns status 0
d) exit returns status 1

a) its value is used as the exit status code for the awk process

10. Which statement skips over the rest of the loop body, causing the next cycle around the loop to begin immediately?
a) continue
b) break
c) next
d) none of the mentioned

a) continue