[SOLVED] Search exact string and get line number from where it is in text

pedropt · 02-01-2018, 12:33 PM

Imagining that i have this text :

Quote:

ewrwrwerwetew
ttyt56hfghh
user
7547754
36346fgjfgj

I want to search for an exact string and get the line number in that text file from where it is .

Using grep for exact match i can use :

Code:

grep "\<user\>" <textfile

but how do i get the line number from where "user" word it is ?
in the text above , "user" is in line 3 , how can i get that value ?

Turbocapitalist · 02-01-2018, 12:48 PM

Check the manual page for grep

Code:

man grep

Scroll down to where it says:

Prefix each line of output with the 1-based line number within its input file.

pedropt · 02-01-2018, 01:04 PM

it is the "-n" switch ?
so the search should be ?

Quote:

grep -n "\<user\>" <textfile

Turbocapitalist · 02-01-2018, 01:12 PM

Or this instead,

Code:

grep --line-number "\<user\>" textfile

Whichever style you prefer to look at.

pedropt · 02-01-2018, 02:48 PM

thanks , it works line a charm .

MadeInGermany · 02-02-2018, 10:02 AM

Another grep option -w can be used instead of the \< \>

Code:

grep -nw "user" textfile

-nw is short for -n -w
The following prints only the line number:

Code:

sed -n "/\<user\>/=" textfile

And awk can elegantly pass strings (constants and shell variables) to its own variables:

Code:

awk -v u="user" '($1==u) {print NR}' textfile