Using awk to count the number of occurrences of a word in a column

Question

03/03/2014 12:31:21 BLOCK 10.1.34.1 11:22:33:44:55:66

03/03/2014 12:31:22 ALLOW 10.1.34.2 AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

03/03/2014 12:31:25 BLOCK 10.1.34.1 55:66:77:88:99:AA
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Answer 1

Use an array

awk '{count[$3]++} END {for (word in count) print word, count[word]}' file

If you want "block" specifically: END {print count["BLOCK"]}