pattern matching question - grep
 

I am trying to grep for a pattern (as01dc intel Diff) in a file called "formatted.fle". The pattern in a variable called "input_record" which is read from a file.

I have attempted several methods but no success

grep "$input_record" formatted_input.fle
returns
as01dc intel Diff 8251092
ias01dc intel Diff 96428
was01dc intel Diff 941104

The only valid one is the as01dc line

So to isolate that I try

grep - x "$input_record" formatted_input.fle

it returns nothing

grep "^as01dc intel Diff" formatted_input.fle

retrurns
as01dc intel Diff 8251092
which is OK but it needs to be a variable after that carat.

grep "^$input_record" formatted_input.fle

returns nothing

I don't understand why the -x doesn't work. I don't understand how to use the carat.

I am :study: but in 3 days I have not figured it out:scratch:

Try using the -w option to have grep match on complete words: grep -w "$pattern" file