miller/doc/feature-comparison.html
2015-05-14 14:05:45 -04:00

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<br/>User info:
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="index.html">About</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="file-formats.html">File formats</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="feature-comparison.html"><b>Miller features in the context of the Unix toolkit</b></a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="record-heterogeneity.html">Record-heterogeneity</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="performance.html">Performance</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="etymology.html">Why call it Miller?</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="originality.html">How original is Miller?</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="reference.html">Reference</a>
<br/>&bull;&nbsp;<a href="data-examples.html">Data examples</a>
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<center> <titleinbody> Miller features in the context of the Unix toolkit </titleinbody> </center>
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<center><b>Contents:</b></center>
&bull;&nbsp;<a href="#File-format_awareness">File-format awareness</a><br/>
&bull;&nbsp;<a href="#awk-like_features:_mlr_filter_and_mlr_put">awk-like features: mlr filter and mlr put</a><br/>
&bull;&nbsp;<a href="#See_also">See also</a><br/>
</div>
<p/>
<a id="File-format_awareness"/><h1>File-format awareness</h1>
Miller respects CSV headers. If you do <tt>mlr --csv-input cat *.csv</tt> then the header line is written once:
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$ cat a.csv
a,b,c
1,2,3
4,5,6
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$ cat b.csv
a,b,c
7,8,9
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$ mlr --csv cat a.csv b.csv
a,b,c
1,2,3
4,5,6
7,8,9
</pre>
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Likewise with <tt>mlr sort</tt>, <tt>mlr tac</tt>, and so on.
<a id="awk-like_features:_mlr_filter_and_mlr_put"/><h1>awk-like features: mlr filter and mlr put</h1>
<ul>
<li/> <tt>mlr filter</tt> includes/excludes records based on a filter
expression, e.g. <tt>mlr filter '$count &gt; 10'</tt>.
<li/> <tt>mlr put</tt> adds a new field as a function of others, e.g. <tt>mlr
put '$xy = $x * $y'</tt> or <tt>mlr put '$counter = NR'</tt>.
<li/> The <tt>$name</tt> syntax is straight from <tt>awk</tt>&rsquo;s <tt>$1 $2
$3</tt> (adapted to name-based indexing), as are the variables <tt>FS</tt>,
<tt>OFS</tt>, <tt>RS</tt>, <tt>ORS</tt>, <tt>NF</tt>, <tt>NR</tt>, and
<tt>FILENAME</tt>.
<li/> While <tt>awk</tt> functions are record-based, Miller subcommands (or
functions, if you like) are stream-based: each of them maps a stream of records
into another stream of records.
<li/> Unlike <tt>awk</tt>, Miller doesn&rsquo;t allow you to define new functions.
Its domain-specific languages are limited to the <tt>filter</tt> and
<tt>put</tt> syntax. Futher programmability comes from chaining with
<tt>then</tt>.
<li/> Unlike with <tt>awk</tt>, all variables are stream variables and all
functions are stream functions. This means <tt>NF</tt>, <tt>NR</tt>, etc.
change from one line to another, <tt>$x</tt> is a label for field <tt>x</tt> in
the current record, and the input to <tt>sqrt($x)</tt> changes from one record
to the next. Miller doesn&rsquo;t let you set, say, <tt>sum=0</tt> and then
update that on each record.
<li/> Miller is faster than <tt>awk</tt>, <tt>cut</tt>, and so on (depending on
platform; see also <a href="performance.html">Performance</a>). In
particular, Miller&rsquo;s DSL syntax is parsed into C control structures at
startup time, with the bulk data-stream processing all done in C.
</ul>
<a id="See_also"/><h1>See also</h1>
<p/>See <a href="reference.html">Reference</a> for more on Miller&rsquo;s
subcommands <tt>cat</tt>, <tt>cut</tt>, <tt>head</tt>, <tt>sort</tt>,
<tt>tac</tt>, <tt>tail</tt>, <tt>top</tt>, and <tt>uniq</tt>, as well as awk-like
<tt>mlr filter</tt> and <tt>mlr put</tt>.
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