I am trying to read multiple variables from a file and trying to use them for desired output.

while read x y; do cat details.txt | grep -Ei '$x[[:space:]]+$y' | awk '{print $1}' | tr '\n' '\t';echo $x | tr '\n' '\t'; echo $y ; done < data.txt

data.txt
was CB3-WAS-APP
CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-APP
CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-Catal
CCAPZP01 CB4-CCAPZP01-APP
CCAPZP02 CB4-CCAPZP02-APP

details.txt
USSD WAS CB3-WAS-APP
Virtu CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-APP
Virtu CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-Catal
BI CCAPZP01 CB4-CCAPZP01-APP
BI CCAPZP02 CB4-CCAPZP02-APP

grep -Ei '$x[[:space:]]+$y' I am using it as there is tab in between in details file. I am not getting desired output, meaning for the 1st line it does take x as was but doesn't give me USSD from details file instead it displays $x. But when I execute manually it does give me USSD. What am i doing wrong

cat detail | grep -Ei 'WAS[[:space:]]+CB3-WAS-APP' | awk '{print $1}'
USSD

However when the loop runs this is the output

was CB3-WAS-APP
CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-APP
CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-Catal
CCAPZP01 CB4-CCAPZP01-APP
CCAPZP02 CB4-CCAPZP02-APP

Expected output should be, which is same as details.txt, However i need to do it through while loop as I need to display many other things other than just these 3 details each line

USSD WAS CB3-WAS-APP
Virtu CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-APP
Virtu CB-Pro CB4-CB-Pro-Catal
BI CCAPZP01 CB4-CCAPZP01-APP
BI CCAPZP02 CB4-CCAPZP02-APP

It will help to wrap the script in [code[ [/code] tags.

About the question, but not looking at the rest of the script, one way to read multiple variables to use additional file descriptors and read two files:

Mind the spacing with the redirects, there can't be any space between the file descriptor number and the redirection symbol.

It will be up to you to ensure that the two files contain the exact same number of lines.

Thanks Turbocapitalist, I have only one file so are you suggesting me to do some like the following, not sure of the syntax.

while read -u3 x; read -u4 y;
do
echo $x $y;
done 3< $(cat file1.txt | awk '{print $1}') 4< $(cat file1.txt | awk '{print $2}')

Or are you trying to join them according to a common field?

See

you do not need cat:
would be sufficient

No I am not joining it, i don't only need to displays 3 details in final output I need to use x & y and display other details. Main code is

#!/bin/ksh93

i=1
exec < data.txt
while read x y
do
echo $i | tr '\n' '\t'
cat details.txt | grep -Ei '$x[[:space:]]+$y' | awk '{print $1}' | tr '\n' '\t'
echo $x | tr '\n' '\t'
Pol_Type=`sudo /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bppllist $y -U | grep -i "Policy Type:" | awk '{print $3}'`

case "$Pol_Type" in
"DB2") echo "Application-DB2" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
"MS-SQL-Server") echo "Application-SQL" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
"MS-Windows") echo "Operating_System-Windows" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
"NBU-Catalog") echo "NBU-Catalog" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
"Oracle") echo "Application-Oracle" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
"Standard") echo "Operating_System-Unix" | tr '\n' '\t'
;;
esac

cat /etc/hosts | grep -F "$x" | grep -v "^#" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}' | tr '\n' '\t'
echo "CB-BACK" | tr '\n' '\t'
echo "Con-B" | tr '\n' '\t'
echo "$y"
((i++))
done

@pan64, I need to search $x tab $y in detail file then only it will be able to search and print $1 will be relavant.

As mentioned, cat is not needed in conjunction with either grep or awk. Further grep is almost never needed when you have awk. Same for head.

etc.

$ x=CB-Pro
$ y=CB4-CB-Pro-APP
$ cp detail details
$ x=CB-Pro
$ y=CB4-CB-Pro-APP
$ awk --assign x=$x --assign y=$y '$0 ~ x "\t" y { print $0 }' IGNORECASE=1 details
$ awk --assign x=$x --assign y=$y '$0 ~ x"\t"y { print $0 }' IGNORECASE=1 details
$ cat details | grep -Ei '$x[[:space:]]+$y' | awk '{print $1}'
$ cat details | grep -Ei 'CB-Pro[[:space:]]+CB4-CB-Pro-APP' | awk '{print $1}'
Virtu
$

I believe there is something wrong in my grep, when I use variables it doesn't give me anything However when I use exact text it does work.

Yes, there are several things amiss there. However, one of them is the use of single quotes ' where double quotes " should be used. The latter allow for interpretation of shell variables, the former do not. Again, see the comments about cat and co.

1 members found this post helpful.

Ohhh fish, my bad, stupid mistake, it is working fine now. However as you have mentioned How can I simplify/substitute these 2.

cat details | grep -Ei "$x[[:space:]]+$y" | awk '{print $1}'
cat /etc/hosts | grep -F "$x" | grep -v "^#" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}'

See the examples in post #8, a simple awk will do. But if not, at least eliminate the unnecessary cat.

yeah I have already removed cat, However your awk didn't do the job.

What do you need to add to it or change so that it will do the job? From here it looks like it illustrates two ways of using awk to combine several activities into one.

-E is extended-regex which interprets "$x[[:space:]]+$y", what would be equivalent search parameter for awk?