File: gawk.info,  Node: Library Functions Summary,  Next: Library Exercises,  Prev: Walking Arrays,  Up: Library Functions

10.8 Summary
============

   * Reading programs is an excellent way to learn Good Programming.
     The functions and programs provided in this major node and the next
     are intended to serve that purpose.

   * When writing general-purpose library functions, put some thought
     into how to name any global variables so that they won't conflict
     with variables from a user's program.

   * The functions presented here fit into the following categories:

     General problems
          Number-to-string conversion, testing assertions, rounding,
          random number generation, converting characters to numbers,
          joining strings, getting easily usable time-of-day
          information, and reading a whole file in one shot

     Managing data files
          Noting data file boundaries, rereading the current file,
          checking for readable files, checking for zero-length files,
          and treating assignments as file names

     Processing command-line options
          An 'awk' version of the standard C 'getopt()' function

     Reading the user and group databases
          Two sets of routines that parallel the C library versions

     Traversing arrays of arrays
          Two functions that traverse an array of arrays to any depth