11.6 Variables and Array Assignments

Variables can be assigned a value with an = sign. For example:

FS = ","

Expressions using the operators + , - , / , and % (modulo) can be assigned to variables.

Arrays can be created with the split function (see below), or they can simply be named in an assignment statement. ++ , += , and -= are used to increment or decrement an array, as in the C language. Array elements can be subscripted with numbers ( array [ 1] , ..., array [ n ] ) or with names. For example, to count the number of occurrences of a pattern, you could use the following script:

/

pattern

/ { 

array

["/

pattern

/"]++ } END { print 

array

["/

pattern

/"] }