Rating: 
Summary: You'll not regret this one!
Review: My primarily profession is database administration on Windows NT/2000 platform so I'm pretty new to Unix tools. Several months ago I needed some inexpensive, yet powerful tools to manipulate some large text files for our data warehouse project -- basically I was looking for a way to avoid expensive commercial ETL tools. PERL was my first choice, but it seemed to me that learning curve is too steep for what I needed, so I ended with GNU sed and awk.
I was happy with the GNU version of Guide for Awk "Effective AWK Programming" written by one of the author of this book, Mr. Arnold D. Robbins -- but I needed some good reference for sed as well and this book was logical choice for me. Not only that it helped me to learn SED, now I'm using the book mostly as reference and user guide for awk. It's well written and will certainly satisfy both the advanced and the novice users.
The only objections that I have are examples at the end of the book. Not many readers will find them interesting and useful, especially chapter 12 Full-Featured Applications.
Overall good choice if you want to learn either of the two tools!
Rating: 
Summary: This book saved me from carpal tunnel
Review: No lie.
Rating:
Summary: This book has saved my bacon
Review: Say what you will about the depth of this book. I am here to tell you that on more than one occasion this book has saved my bacon. Several times in different environments I needed to use sed to correct data in flat files. Once I used sed to change the format and numbers when we wanted to match accounting numbers to a different system. I haven't used that much awk. However there has been occasion to transfer awk programs from one Unix to a different Unix flavor. I found that the regular awk in this book was newer than the newawk in the other system. I Still keep the book handy incase I get squeezed for time and have to manipulate files. However I am learning more and more to appreciate PERL on those occasions.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Sed and awk are, as the book adequately puts it, UNIX "powertools". Sed is quite handy and awk is even better. This book presents a breathtaking introduction to both of them, and yet still delves into the more advanced details as it constantly presents exciting and useful examples. Both sed and awk are an essential part of any UNIX operating system, and both echo with the prestige of the master programmers that designed them. Well done, Mr. Dougherty!
Rating:
Summary: sed, awk ... useful tools
Review: sed and awk typically get a bum rap from perl users. "why learn sed or awk when perl can do both?" yes, it can. and so much more.but what if you just need to print, say, the first field of a file? or just replace a few characters in a stream? what about the situations when you dont have perl handy (ie a freshly installed IRIX box)? the sed & awk book is *the* standard. it's not written by anyone famous or whatnot, but it does a fantastic job of covering the basics, the meat, and advanced uses of sed and awk (and variants). if you spend time on the command line and need to know a few quick tips, this is the book to have for sed and awk. you'll learn regexp material, how to use sed and awk and a bunch of useful routines. highly reccomended for UNIX shell geeks.
Rating:
Summary: sed, awk ... useful tools
Review: sed and awk typically get a bum rap from perl users. "why learn sed or awk when perl can do both?" yes, it can. and so much more. but what if you just need to print, say, the first field of a file? or just replace a few characters in a stream? what about the situations when you dont have perl handy (ie a freshly installed IRIX box)? the sed & awk book is *the* standard. it's not written by anyone famous or whatnot, but it does a fantastic job of covering the basics, the meat, and advanced uses of sed and awk (and variants). if you spend time on the command line and need to know a few quick tips, this is the book to have for sed and awk. you'll learn regexp material, how to use sed and awk and a bunch of useful routines. highly reccomended for UNIX shell geeks.
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Summary: Amaze & Astound your work mates :)
Review: simple yet powerful commands, you'll wonder how you ever did without it
Rating:
Summary: the best desktop reference
Review: Some good reviews on here -- my only additon is that this book has been the best desktop reference for me. I am constantly referring back to it to answer questions. A MUST HAVE for any novice/intermediate user.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, a must for anyone working with UNIX
Review: The book provides a good intro to sed and awk and regular expressions in general. I recommend it for anyone that spends any time at a shell prompt. Even if you think you know these 2 tools you should give this one a look.
Rating:
Summary: A Must !
Review: This book from the GREAT O'reilly Collection is a must for anyone who wants to master 'sed' and 'awk', a POWERFUL set of Unix tools, which are too often ignored or under-utilized. Written in plain english, this book will satisfy the advanced and the novice users. Greatly recommended !
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