Question

____ section can be used if we’ve to print something before processing the first line.

(a) end

(b) begin

(c) start

(d) first

This question was posed to me during an interview for a job.

My question comes from Various Operations using Awk Command in section Awk – An Advanced Filter & Perl – The Master Manipulator of Unix

Answer 1

Correct choice is (b) begin

Explanation: awk statements are usually applied to all the lines selected by the address. But if we want to print something before processing the first line, for example, a heading, then the BEGIN section can be used. The syntax is: