UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

A more detailed explanation follows.
The main awk code runs for each input line.
!a[$0]++ is ultra-condensed, quick and dirty.
A bit more explicit is !($0 in A) { A[$0]; print }:
If not $0 in array A (A[$0] not defined) then define A[$0] (no A[$0]=value needed here) and print $0.
The array A is associative (string-addressed). So if the same $0 will occur in another input line it will see a defined A[$0] and won't print.
If there is a pre-condition and no { action code } following then the default for a true condition is { print }, and print without arguments defaults to print $0.

Now to the quick and dirty !A[$0]++:
Define A[$0] with value 0 if undefined, if the negated value is non-zero (true) then default-print. Also post-increment A[$0].
If the same $0 will occur then the A[$0] value will be 1, negated 0 (false), won't print, but post-incremented.
If the same $0 will occur then the A[$0] value will be 2, negated 0 (false), won't print, but post-incremented.
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