Editing AWK (section)

=== Count words ===

Count words in the input and print the number of lines, words, and characters (like [[wc (Unix)|wc]]):
<syntaxhighlight lang="awk">
{
    words += NF
    chars += length + 1 # add one to account for the newline character at the end of each record (line)
}
END { print NR, words, chars }
</syntaxhighlight>

As there is no pattern for the first line of the program, every line of input matches by default, so the increment actions are executed for every line. <code>words += NF</code> is shorthand for <code>words = words + NF</code>.