Editing statistical data with gawk
Stats Don't Lie
© Lead Image © daniilantiq, 123RF.com
With very little overhead, you can access statistics on the spread of COVID-19 using gawk scripts and simple shell commands.
Open a paper, turn on the radio or TV, and you are confronted with statistics concerning the spread of COVID-19. Sometimes, it's hard to wrap your mind around all the data, and even then, you are never sure if the media is taking the data out of context. For instance, a report of 30,000 new infections in a country doesn't provide any information about the number of tests or the positivity rate.
If you want to drill down into the data concerning the spread of COVID-19, you can use gawk scripts and simple shell commands to process, evaluate, and present these statistics in a more meaningful way.
A Few One-Liners
The statistical data on the spread of COVID-19, usually collected daily and organized in timelines, is freely available on the Internet. Our World in Data (OWID) [1] has been recording the data since the beginning of the crisis. On its website, OWID makes the data available for download in various formats, including CSV format, which is well suited for further processing.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
-
Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.