grep issue

alape · 01-28-2012, 10:43 AM

Hi everyone ^^

file name: test.txt

koki:45
kiki:15
lulu:touki

I want grep to return me all words with "ki" before ":"
- koki
- kiki

No touki because it's after ":"

When i do "grep ki test.txt" I got the 3.

I need your help. Thanks

druuna · 01-28-2012, 10:55 AM

Hi,

This all words with "ki" before ":" can still mean 2 things:
- ki immediately followed by :

Code:

grep "ki:" test.txt

- ki anywhere as long as it is before :

Code:

grep "ki.*:" test.txt

The .* translates to any character.

Hope thi helps.

anomie · 01-28-2012, 11:49 AM

druuna is exactly correct, but I'd just tack on a quick note:

. == matches any single character
* == matches zero or more instances of the previous item

When combined, the expression '.*' means (read from right to left, due to the operator's effect) match zero or more occurrences of any character.