Anyone interested in collaborating on an Awk Cook Book? That we get published with (say) O'Reilly?
After browsing the
excellent entries from the
PHP cookbook by
David Sklar and Adam Trachtenberg, I think the following topics look relevant.
But what other topics are useful/ simple/ practical/ etc?
I propose the following timetable:
March 2010:
Revise the following list of headings (making comments using the comment system, below);
Identify possible authors
April 2010:
Every author writes 5 new entries (call them "yellow")
May 2010:
Every author reviews 5 entries for other authors, to label them "green" (ok to go) or "red" (needs more work).
Every author writes 5 new entries (call them "yellow")
Try to interest new authors in the project.
Repeat the above, till done.
So, according to that timetable, the first step is for everyone to jump in and propose topics. Looking forward to your input!
1 = Strings =
2
3 * Accessing Substrings
4 * Replacing Substrings
5 * Processing a String One Character at a Time
6 * Reversing a String by Word or Character
7 * Expanding and Compressing Tabs
8 * Controlling Case
9 * Interpolating Functions and Expressions Within Strings
10 * Trimming Blanks from a String
11 * Parsing Comma-Separated Data
12 * Parsing Fixed-Width Delimited Data
13 * Taking Strings Apart
14 * Wrapping Text at a Certain Line Length
15 * Storing Binary Data in Strings
16 * Building a String From Parts
17 * Substituting Variables Into Strings
18 * Converting Between Characters and Values
19 * Managing Whitespace
20 * Word-wrapping Lines of Text
21 * Validating an Email Address
22
23 = Numbers =
24
25 * Checking Whether a String Contains a Valid Number
26 * Comparing Floating-Point Numbers
27 * Rounding Floating-Point Numbers
28 * Operating on a Series of Integers
29 * Generating Random Numbers Within a Range
30 * Generating Biased Random Numbers
31 * Taking Logarithms
32 * Calculating Exponents
33 * Formatting Numbers
34 * Printing Correct Plurals
35 * Calculating Trigonometric Functions
36 * Doing Trigonometry in Degrees, not Radians
37 * Handling Very Large or Very Small Numbers
38 * Converting Between Bases
39 * Calculating Using Numbers in Bases Other Than Decimal
40
41 = Dates and Times =
42
43 * Finding the Current Date and Time
44 * Converting Time and Date Parts to an Epoch Timestamp
45 * Converting an Epoch Timestamp to Time and Date Parts
46 * Printing a Date or Time in a Specified Format
47 * Finding the Difference of Two Dates
48 * Finding the Difference of Two Dates with Julian Days
49 * Finding the Day in a Week, Month, Year, or the Week Number in a Year
50 * Validating a Date
51 * Parsing Dates and Times from Strings
52 * Adding to or Subtracting from a Date
53 * Calculating Time with Time Zones
54 * Accounting for Daylight Saving Time
55 * Generating a High-Precision Time
56 * Generating Time Ranges
57 * Using Non-Gregorian Calendars
58 * Program: Calendar
59
60 = Arrays =
61
62 * Specifying an Array Not Beginning at Element 0
63 * Storing Multiple Elements per Key in an Array
64 * Initializing an Array to a Range of Integers
65 * Iterating Through an Array
66 * Deleting Elements from an Array
67 * Changing Array Size
68 * Appending One Array to Another
69 * Turning an Array into a String
70 * Printing an Array with Commas
71 * Checking if a Key Is in an Array
72 * Checking if an Element Is in an Array
73 * Finding the Position of an Element in an Array
74 * Finding Elements That Pass a Certain Test
75 * Finding the Largest or Smallest Valued Element in an Array
76 * Reversing an Array
77 * Sorting an Array
78 * Sorting an Array by a Computable Field
79 * Sorting Multiple Arrays
80 * Sorting an Array Using a Method Instead of a Function
81 * Randomizing an Array
82 * Shuffling a Deck of Cards
83 * Removing Duplicate Elements from an Array
84 * Finding the Union, Intersection, or Difference of Two Arrays
85 * Finding All Element Combinations of an Array
86 * Finding All Permutations of an Array
87 * Program: Printing an Array in a Horizontally Columned HTML Table
88
89 = Hashes =
90
91 * Introduction
92 * Adding an Element to a Hash
93 * Testing for the Presence of a Key in a Hash
94 * Deleting from a Hash
95 * Traversing a Hash
96 * Printing a Hash
97 * Retrieving from a Hash in Insertion Order
98 * Hashes with Multiple Values Per Key
99 * Inverting a Hash
100 * Sorting a Hash
101 * Merging Hashes
102 * Finding Common or Different Keys in Two Hashes
103 * Hashing References
104 * Presizing a Hash
105 * Finding the Most Common Anything
106 * Representing Relationships Between Data
107 * Program: dutree
108
109 = Variables =
110
111 * Avoiding == Versus = Confusion
112 * Establishing a Default Value
113 * Exchanging Values Without Using Temporary Variables
114 * Creating a Dynamic Variable Name
115 * Using Static Variables
116 * Sharing Variables Between Processes
117 * Encapsulating Complex Data Types as a String
118 * Dumping Variable Contents as Strings
119
120 = Functions =
121
122 * Accessing Function Parameters
123 * Setting Default Values for Function Parameters
124 * Passing Values by Reference
125 * Using Named Parameters
126 * Creating Functions That Take a Variable Number of Arguments
127 * Returning Values by Reference
128 * Returning More Than One Value
129 * Skipping Selected Return Values
130 * Returning Failure
131 * Calling Variable Functions
132 * Accessing a Global Variable Inside a Function
133 * Creating Dynamic Functions
134
135 = XML =
136
137 * Generating XML Manually
138 * Generating XML with the DOM
139 * Parsing XML with the DOM
140 * Parsing XML with SAX
141 * Transforming XML with XSLT
142 * Sending XML-RPC Requests
143 * Receiving XML-RPC Requests
144 * Sending SOAP Requests
145 * Receiving SOAP Requests
146 * Exchanging Data with WDDX
147 * Reading RSS Feeds
148
149 = Regular Expressions =
150
151 * Switching From ereg to preg
152 * Matching Words
153 * Finding the nth Occurrence of a Match
154 * Choosing Greedy or Nongreedy Matches
155 * Matching a Valid Email Address
156 * Finding All Lines in a File That Match a Pattern
157 * Capturing Text Inside HTML Tags
158 * Escaping Special Characters in a Regular Expression
159 * Reading Records with a Pattern Separator
160
161
162 = Files =
163 * Creating or Opening a Local File
164 * Creating a Temporary File
165 * Opening a Remote File
166 * Reading from Standard Input
167 * Reading a File into a String
168 * Counting Lines, Paragraphs, or Records in a File
169 * Processing Every Word in a File
170 * Reading a Particular Line in a File
171 * Processing a File Backward by Line or Paragraph
172 * Picking a Random Line from a File
173 * Randomizing All Lines in a File
174 * Processing Variable Length Text Fields
175 * Reading Configuration Files
176 * Reading from or Writing to a Specific Location in a File
177 * Removing the Last Line of a File
178 * Modifying a File in Place Without a Temporary File
179 * Flushing Output to a File
180 * Writing to Standard Output
181 * Writing to Many Filehandles Simultaneously
182 * Escaping Shell Metacharacters
183 * Passing Input to a Program
184 * Reading Standard Output from a Program
185 * Reading Standard Error from a Program
186 * Locking a File
187 * Reading and Writing Compressed Files
188 * Program: Unzip
189
190 = Directories =
191
192 * Getting and Setting File Timestamps
193 * Getting File Information
194 * Changing File Permissions or Ownership
195 * Splitting a Filename into Its Component Parts
196 * Deleting a File
197 * Copying or Moving a File
198 * Processing All Files in a Directory
199 * Getting a List of Filenames Matching a Pattern
200 * Processing All Files in a Directory
201 * Making New Directories
202 * Removing a Directory and Its Contents
203 * Program: Web Server Directory Listing
204 * Program: Site Search
