Programming with awk

Error messages

If you make an error in your awk program, you generally get an error message. For example, trying to run the program

   $3 < 200 { print ( $1 }

generates the error messages

awk: syntax error at source line 1
context is
$3 < 200 { print ( >>> $1 } <<<
awk: illegal statement at source line 1
1 extra (

Some errors may be detected while your program is running. For example, if you try to divide a number by zero, awk stops processing and reports the input record number (NR) and the line number in the program.