grep vs awk

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 08:55 AM

Hi,
I have a data table with 7 columns (;separated).
I want to grep string 999999 from column 5 only

grep -ie "999999" filename

gives me results from all columns

awk '{if($5 == "999999") print $0;}' filename

awk '$5 == "999999"' filename

awk '$5 ~ /999999/ {print $0;}' filename

ALL don't work. they give NO results (and no errors)

I am lost!

syg00 · 08-12-2014, 09:04 AM

And you'll stay that way until and unless you give us some data to judge your efforts by.

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 09:05 AM

It has something to do with how the data is stored and read. If I save the original file as text it DOES work...
But I really need to access the original file. Is there a different code for awk and semicolon separated strings maybe?

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 09:07 AM

1;1;1;var;731791;0;n
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n
1;1;1;var;731792;0;n
1;1;1;var;12345;999999;n

syg00 · 08-12-2014, 09:08 AM

Semicolon is not a standard field separator (FS in awk parlance).
Like I said, if you shown us some of the input file we'd have been able to hep better - "man awk" should point you to "-F" so you can specify your field sep.

szboardstretcher · 08-12-2014, 09:13 AM

With that input, and the ifs being ;, you can do this:

Code:

awk 'BEGIN {FS=";"}; $5 == "999999" {print};' inputfile

which will only print the line with 999999 in the fifth column.

ouput:

Code:

[root@dev ~]# cat inputfile
1;1;1;var;731791;0;n
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n
1;1;1;var;731792;0;n
1;1;1;var;12345;999999;n

[root@dev ~]# awk 'BEGIN {FS=";"}; $5 == "999999" {print};' inputfile
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n

szboardstretcher · 08-12-2014, 09:13 AM

With that input, and the ifs being ;, you can do this:

Code:

awk 'BEGIN {FS=";"}; $5 == "999999" {print};' inputfile

which will only print the line with 999999 in the fifth column.

ouput:

Code:

[root@dev ~]# cat inputfile
1;1;1;var;731791;0;n
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n
1;1;1;var;731792;0;n
1;1;1;var;12345;999999;n

[root@dev ~]# awk 'BEGIN {FS=";"}; $5 == "999999" {print};' inputfile
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 09:14 AM

Yes that should be it. Now I have to find how to specify semicolon in the right code. That was not in the help function. Have an idea?

szboardstretcher · 08-12-2014, 09:16 AM

I used the semicolon as the IFS,.. is that not what you wanted?

schneidz · 08-12-2014, 09:17 AM

Code:

[schneidz@hyper ~]$ cat totemtommie.txt 
1;1;1;var;731791;0;n
1;1;1;var;999999;0;n
1;1;1;var;731792;0;n
1;1;1;var;12345;999999;n
[schneidz@hyper ~]$ awk -F \; '$5 ~ /999999/ {print $5}' totemtommie.txt 
999999

although awk is a command it is really an interpretive language where syntax needs to be learned (like english).

man awk (page down to -F).

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 09:20 AM

Sorry yes I JUST missed that part.

MANY MANY MANY THANKS!

semicolons..tsss:-)

totemtommie · 08-12-2014, 09:25 AM

And then the more simple code will also work...

awk -F \; '$5 == "999999"' filename

what a day:-)